


Freed

by whatswronglittlefellow



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alien Character(s), Alien Culture, Bigotry & Prejudice, Courtroom Drama, Dissociation, Era 3, Exploring, Friendship, Gem Fusion, Gem Religion, Gemsonas - Freeform, Gen, Gradual Abolition vs Instant Abolition, Includes Art, Manumission, Pearl Solidarity (Steven Universe), Pearlsonas, Physical Abuse, Post-Series Pre-Movie, Science Fiction, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Exploration, Slavery, Unreliable Narrator, gem society
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2020-12-20 16:55:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 24,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21060029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatswronglittlefellow/pseuds/whatswronglittlefellow
Summary: Following an unprecedented announcement by the Diamond Authority, Pearls throughout the Empire have been given the opportunity to become self-possessed. This story follows an aristocrat's Pearl as she tries to figure out what she wants to do with her life post-manumission.





	1. Chapter 1

The pale green Bouazzerite’s piercing stare seemed to drill straight into the Pearl’s very gem. The Pearl stared back at her mistress uncomfortably. They had both just witnessed the newest report from the hologram screen. Pink Diamond’s replacement - _Selenium? That doesn’t sound right,_ the Pearl grimaced - had just made an unprecedented announcement approved by the remaining Diamonds:

“Pearls are free to choose their own role in society.” The words echoed around the empty atrium and the gems’ minds.

The Pearl tried not to grin too widely as her Bouazzerite turned her thin, glaring head towards her slave. Nevertheless, a smile forced its way upon the Pearl’s face. Bravely, the Pearl attempted to hold her owner’s gaze steadfast. She had never looked so deeply into her mistress’s eyes before; when she did appear to make eye contact, she would usually be instead imagining something, illicitly, within her own mind; something more interesting than the scorning of an aristocrat.

“What?” Bouazzerite exclaimed, “Does that mean you’re not…” The Pearl noticed that tears were beginning to form in her pompous owner’s eyes and dampened her own smile, not wanting the obvious disparity between their emotions to provoke the anger of her Bouazzerite. _It didn’t work,_ thought the Pearl as she watched Bouazzerite’s face contort into tight angles of outrage.

“You’re not mine anymore? But I earned you! I _deserve_ you!”

The Pearl covered her ears and took an involuntary step backwards. _She’s angry again,_ she thought fearfully, her smile quickly turning to a worried frown. She could already feel the heel of Bouazzerite’s hand hitting her waist. For some reason, she thought that imagining herself going through a punishment before it was actually enacted somehow made it easier to bear.

“My apologies, my Bouazzerite!” The Pearl laughed. She didn’t know what she was apologizing for, but she always assumed that she did something wrong when Bouazzerite was mad, just to be safe. Bouazzerite took a deep sigh and looked around the room, her face still taut.

“Stand up, Pearl. You look like I am going to hit you.” Bouazzerite muttered very quietly. _But you do, though, _thought the Pearl. She shook away her thoughts, feeling her short hair slightly whip her cheeks. _Whatever, don’t question what she says._ Bouazzerite was using her “pretend that didn’t happen” voice. Her “you’re just a silly, dramatic Pearl” voice.

Bouazzerite crossed her arms over her spherical chest and tapped her bare foot on the tiled floor. This was her “don't interrupt me, I’m thinking about things you wouldn't understand” movement. The Pearl was no longer smiling, instead clasping her hands tightly in front of her, with her head down. She scrunched her toes, feeling the grooves between the tiles with her feet. She traced the outline of a diamond-shaped tile with her toenail. They stood in the awkward, silent air, a high-class Bouazzerite and her poor, meek servant. Suddenly, Bouazzerite made a proud face.

“Pearl, I order you to stay with me until further notice.” She smiled. “Not that it matters to you, but I need to verify the information I have just received. And! not to question the perfect reasoning of the Diamonds, of course, but for efficiency’s sake.” The Pearl nodded, all too aware of the painful sinking feeling in her chest. Disappointment burned in her trachea and eyes. It was almost unbearable, but familiar.

_Now I am the one near tears. I got my hopes up too high, _she thought. Then, in a voice which echoed her mistress’s: _silly Pearl._

While her chest felt as though a Ferrochrome were sitting on it, her head felt as light as a Graphite. It was a typical reaction to an overwhelming feeling of emotion. The Pearl had experienced this sensation a few times before. She was regretfully naïve in some aspects, such as considering her loyal servitude anything but eternal.

“Pearl!” Bouazzerite’s voices cut through her thoughts like an Obsidian’s blade though a gem’s form. The Pearl jumped and looked at her like an off-color caught existing.

“Yes, my Bouazzerite?”

“Let’s meet up with some other gems. I will confirm the details of the announcement at the Equatorial Moon Memorial. I order you to escort me to the High entrance.”

“Yes, of course, my Bouazzerite.” The words tumbled out of her mouth like clumps of moist silt. She traced the path to the High entrance in her mind, (one often walked by her and her mistress), and felt her legs pull her along the familiar route. Strangely, she felt as though she were gliding over the mosaics, despite her feet firmly hitting the floor with every step. The lightheadedness remained.

They walked past the high windows overlooking the Tribrilliant Square, past the mural of Bouazzerite’s most precious contribution to gem society, past the Moss Jasper saluting Bouazzerite at the door, and out onto the balcony. The Pearl’s bangs shifted in the whistling outdoor wind, and she quickly pushed them out of her eyes with her mesh-gloved hands. She looked to her left and saw her Bouazzerite’s dress flapping in the fresh breeze. She felt her own skirt pushing against her thighs, but didn’t bother repositioning it. Her bare shoulders and toes felt cold, but she kept her hands firmly clasped in front of her, again.

“To the right, my Bouazzerite.” The Pearl instructed. She winced when she heard the gem scoff in response.

“Do you think I don’t know where the Moon Memorial is?” Bouazzerite sneered in her “can you believe I have to put up with this?” voice, but to the Pearl’s relief, she was talking more to an imaginary audience than to anyone corporeal. The Pearl could tell by the vacant stare in the gem’s yellow-green eyes and the quiet tone she used.

That same yellow-green stare found its way onto the Pearl’s eyes again. The Pearl quickly shifted her gaze to a group of Pyromorphites doing something presumably productive in the Tribrilliant Square some two hundred feet below her.

“Come on, Pearl. We must go.” Bouazzerite interrupted.

“Yes!” The Pearl responded with a overly-enthusiastic smile. Before she assumed her position trotting behind her mistress, she caught Bouazzerite making a sickened face in her direction. The Pearl looked at her feet as she walked, trying to forget the cold biting at her extremities.

The Pearl had such a hard time figuring out what Bouazzerite wanted, even when she was giving orders. _She hits me, she gives me gifts, she is my friend, I am her annoyance, I must not frown, I must not smile… _Pearl felt sad recounting this. Her ability to carry out Bouazzerite’s orders was her only worth. Or was it? She thought about the announcement and felt the same naïve hope rise in her chest.

The walk to the Moon Memorial wasn’t long, just more windy than usual. The Pearl actually felt glad that she was able to walk in direct sunlight that day. The light hitting her gem, located in the same respective place as her mistress’s (on her upper back between her shoulder blades), helped to alleviate her lightheadedness. Lately, the Pearl had been feeling more and more tired as the weight of her unending duties weighed heavier and heavier on her shoulders. At least walking in the sunshine always made her occasional emotional exhaustion easier to bear.

They reached the spire and onto a warp pad. The Pearl activated the warp without even being asked, and in the blink of an eye, the duo was at the High entrance.

There were separate entrances for separate castes. It would be disrespectful to the Bouazzerite to have her enter the same way as a Quartz. But even Quartzes had to have occasional meetings with their managers, so they were of course allowed in, just somewhere else.

The High entrance was metallic in its luster and shaped like a pentagon. While the opening mechanism was newly updated, the building itself was millennia old, at least two millennia older than the Pearl herself, as apparent by the old diamond insignia on the door. But with Pink Diamond back(_? Is it Stevensite who is here now? Yes, that might be it_), the Pearl guessed that updates were no longer required. _At least it’s less work for the sculptors to do._ She reached ahead of her Bouazzerite to open the door before she ordered her to. The Pearl thought it beneficial to be on her owner’s good side today. Maybe that would persuade her to give her Pearl some freedom. Bouazzerite did not acknowledge the action, as usual.


	2. Chapter 2

Bouazzerite already had a meeting scheduled in one of the private conference rooms of the Moon Memorial. It was to discuss recent implementations of her new weapon. She was of a higher rank than the Demantoids she was meeting with, and certainly of a higher rank than the Nephrites that would be using it, so the Pearl predicted that her mistress would probably bring up the recent broadcast in an abrupt, most likely interrupting, way. That is, if the Pearl even got to listen to the conversation.

They entered the private room. It was moderately-sized, about the size of the interior of a Roaming Eye. _At least it is warmer within the building,_ the Pearl thought tiredly. Even the stone floor felt cool-yet-not-as-cool as the walkway they were previously on.

Inside the room was a small stone fountain placed between two windows opposite the only door. The floor was marble tiles in the diamond insignia pattern, the walls were a shade of light green, and the windows were tall and arched from the floor to the ceiling, which had a sort of industrial look, with many green tubes going through it. The fountain was of a sacred four-armed figure, and was powered by a lovely Agate gem imprisoned within it. Warmth seemed to be emanating from the fountain just as water was.

There were no other gems in the room besides two gloomy Demantoids who stood on opposite sides of the fountain. One had a gem placed in the back of her left palm, and the other had her gem placed in her left shin. They saluted Bouazzerite when she entered.

“My Bouazzerite, about installing the Night Blade on my Scraper vessel-“ the left-hand Demantoid began. Bouazzerite turned to the Pearl as though she were not talking. The Pearl felt a pang of sympathy for the bloodthirsty generals who were being ignored. She knew what it was like to be ignored. Her existence was often only acknowledged when it could be used.

“Pearl,” started Bouazzerite. “I command you to close the door behind you and wait for me in the hall. Do not talk to any gems unless they talk to you first, and do not wander off until I return.”

“Yes, my Bouazzerite.” Tired legs pulled a tired gem into the hall, who was careful to make sure the door was closed shut. She had no other option but to obey.

Glancing around the hall, the Pearl determined that no harm would come if she took her mesh gloves off. She disliked the sensation of the crossed fibers vibrating against her form. She had to be careful, though; if Bouazzerite saw her altering her form, however slightly, she’d at best receive a harrowing glare and at worst receive something more physical.

The Pearl remembered when she once (again, naïvely) came back from a dissipation without the gloves. It was a minor detail, and the Pearl strongly disliked them, anyway. Yet, Bouazzerite loved them. You’d think she had made the gloves herself, considering how she reacted.

Remembering the incident, the Pearl sighed and put the gloves back on. She heard footsteps echoing in the hall, but kept her head down.

“Look, Pearl. It’s Bouazzerite’s.” The Pearl looked up from her thoughts at the familiar voice and saw a glittering robed figure with a fellow Pearl approach her. The Pearl recognized the figure as Frohbergite, a gem of similar rank to her own owner. Frohbergite was beautiful in a way which made you breathless, and she was a very kind gem as well. The Pearl was excited to see her again. 

“My Equanimity,” the Pearl saluted.

“Hello, Pearl.” The Pearl blushed. Frohbergite was one of the few aristocrats who said hello to gems of lower rank. “Where is Bouazzerite?” Her speech sounded like refreshing sunlight shining through a cloudless sky. The Pearl felt something swell up in her chest.

“She is currently holding a meeting with some Demantoids, my Equanimity.”

“Do you know when she would most likely be done?”

The Pearl looked around awkwardly. She had no idea. “I do not know, my Frohbergite. I apologize, my Frohbergite.” The Pearl smiled in an attempt to quiet the incoming wrath of a dissatisfied gem.

But the Frohbergite only gazed at her calmly, as Frohbergites do. “That’s alright,” she murmured. The Pearl was glad that Frohbergite subscribed to the “not too brazen, not too timid” philosophy concerning Pearls.

“I need to talk to someone else, anyways,” Frohbergite stated matter-of-factly. She turned to her own Pearl.

“Pearl, why don’t you and Pearl hang out near this door? You must alert m- oh, wait! Right.” Frohbergite looked uncertain. Bouazzerite’s Pearl had never seen her look like this before and bit her lip in apprehension.

“You may do as you wish,” Frohbergite finished, and swiftly left.

The Pearl gaped at Frohbergite’s.

“Do-“ she laughed in disbelief, “-do as you wish?”

“Yeah!” The bluish Pearl smacked her lips and adjusted the collar of her translucent coat proudly. “Didn’t you hear the most recent announcement?”

“Yes, but my Bouazzerite had to ‘confirm the information’.” Bouazzerite’s Pearl growled. Hearing the disloyal agitation of her own voice, she glanced at the door anxiously. It was sealed shut.

“My Frohbergite said that it was an order from the Diamonds. That’s why she let me go,” elaborated the bluish Pearl. Bouazzerite’s Pearl’s eyes widened, sending shards of disbelief and envy at the other Pearl’s direction.

“Well,” Bouazzerite’s Pearl thought aloud, “if you don’t belong to her anymore, how should gems think of you now? As the… the light blue Pearl with the coat and tights and the chest gem?” She laughed, trying not to make her rhetorical question be taken as a challenge of authority. _Wait, what authority? This is another Pearl I’m talking to._

“Oh,” the other gem grimaced. She put her hand to her chin and squinted her eyes. “I guess… I _am_ the blue-coated chest Pearl. I guess. Or maybe… Bluish Pearl! Oh! That’s a nice moniker! They will know me as ‘Bluish Pearl’.”

She gestured to the green Pearl. “What would that make you?”

“Bouazzerite’s Pearl.” She replied gloomily. “As always, and forever.” Bluish Pearl gave Bouazzerite’s Pearl a concerned look.

“She doesn’t still hit you, right?” Bluish Pearl asked this in a quieter tone.

Bouazzerite’s Pearl responded flatly, “It’s not as bad as it used to be.”

“Oh, Pearl. My Frohbergite says that a gem who hits her sentient instruments shouldn’t be trusted around her insentient ones.”

Bouazzerite’s Pearl laughed, but she didn’t know what was funny. She frowned at that.

“My Frohbergite and I agree: the sooner you get away from that gem, the better. And what a chance you have now!” Bluish Pearl squealed and grabbed Bouazzerite’s Pearl hand in barely-contained excitement. The green Pearl flinched away and felt a strange sense of anger.

_Doing something wrong! I’m always doing something wrong! I’m supposed to serve Bouazzerite eternally, but now I’m supposed to get away from her? It’s not my fault she ordered me to exist!_

The Pearl balled her hands into fists and felt the mesh of her gloves annoyingly grate against her skin. She could feel her nose quiver preemptively with the rhinorrhea that accompanies crying. The inner corners of her eyes burned. She felt weak.

“Pearl? You’re doing that thing where you get all balled-up in your mind again,” Bluish Pearl whispered quietly.

“My apologies.” Bouazzerite’s Pearl whispered back.


	3. No Text, Just a Picture of Bluish Pearl and Bouazzerite’s Pearl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bouazzerite’s Pearl’s gloves look like oven mitts, but they have fingers. I drew this.


	4. Chapter 4

The sun had set since the announcement had been made. Though their side of the planet was facing away from their star, there was so much light pouring out from the buildings which surrounded the High entrance that even when the pair returned to the chilly, open air, it might as well have been daytime.

The Pearl had not seen Frohbergite again, and Frohbergite’s former Pearl had run off once Bouazzerite burst into the hallway.

Anger had seemed to burn off from her mistress. The meeting with the Demantoids must not have gone well. Bluish Pearl had wisely surmised that Bouazzerite didn’t really want any gem in her way, slave or free, but the remaining Pearl still wished that she had stuck around, anyway. Her mistress tended to act kinder when the eyes of others were upon her.

Fortunately, Bouazzerite didn’t do anything noteworthy on the walk back. Nonetheless, her Pearl was scared to the verge of tears. Even though her mistress was walking ahead of her, she tried her hardest not to let the droplets fall from her eyes. It didn’t help that the cold wind was stinging her face as she walked along, making her blink.

The Pearl inhaled deeply, trying to reset her emotions. Trying to keep her mistress happy. Trying to ignore the crushing sense of exhaustion and dread.

_It’s never going to end, is it? _She thought._ I’m always going to have things to do for my Bouazzerite. I’m always going to be around her. But why am I so sad? I was made to be her servant._

The Pearl slowed down to a halt. An overwhelming worry had crept into her mind and paralyzed her, as it did every day. Then, a cold feeling, different from the coldness outside, struck her throat and stiffened her shoulders.

_I’m not defective, am I?_

The Pearl felt the coldness wash throughout her body, crashing over her again and again. To not even exist correctly, to be defective, was the ultimate failure. The Pearl couldn’t fail her mistress. It was impossible.

She felt a lump rise in her throat and tried to control her breathing. She knew that she was displaying an inappropriate emotion, which added anger and shame to her feelings of fear.

_I really can’t do anything right!_

“Pearl!” Bouazzerite called. The Pearl ran ahead to her owner. She suddenly felt lightheaded again. Mumbling incoherent apologies, the Pearl fumbled to open the door ahead of her mistress, but her fingers felt numb. She wondered if it was from the cold, or if she was getting “balled-up” in her mind. She finished, and looked up just in time to see Bouazzerite frown in her direction. She felt that terrifying sense of failure again.

_She’s not mad at you, silly Pearl. She’s probably mad at the Demantoids._

_…or the Diamonds._ The Pearl laughed at such a ridiculous thought.

Feeling slightly better, she closed the door, and the two walked past the Moss Jasper, the mural, the high windows, and back into the atrium. Bouazzerite sat down on her chair and turned towards her desk, which was glowing with holograms.

“Pearl, I need to make a call with another gem. Your only order is to stay away unless I call for you,” she said in a bored kind of way.

“Yes, my Bouazzerite,” the Pearl bowed. She tiptoed out of Bouazzerite’s office.

The Pearl’s favorite place to hang out when she wasn’t assigned to a specific task was underneath the mural in the hallway leading from Bouazzerite’s office to the balcony exit. Even though the hallway was out in the open and barely furnished, it was the place with the least foot traffic on Bouazzerite’s floor; gems rarely walked along this hallway, allowing the Pearl to have some space to herself. She leaned against the illustrated side of the wall and slid into a sitting position on the floor.

When Bouazzerite’s Pearl was distraught, as she was then, an activity which greatly calmed her down was prayer. Something about the repetitiveness of it helped ease her mind from her constantly self-criticizing thoughts. Aside from a Pearl belonging (_or previously belonging, now?_) to an Aquamarine, she didn’t personally know any other Pearls who worshiped. _Maybe gems just don’t talk about it much,_ the Pearl thought, trying not to feel disappointed in herself because she didn’t know the answer. She was a Pearl; she was supposed to know everything which would help her mistress. But now, she wasn’t supposed to have a mistress, did she? The Pearl stared blankly at the wall across from her, unseeing. She didn’t know what she was expected to do. The past day had been so surprising that she could hardly trust any prediction she made. _It’d probably be wrong, anyway, _she thought. Then she shook her head, shaking the thoughts away.

_There is no use being irrational, Pearl. I’m sad right now; my thoughts are not accurate. They will be reasonable once I calm down. I should stop being senseless and pray._

This was why she didn’t like emotions, despite being so wrought with them: they always got in the way of logic, and wholly logical thought was the pinnacle of self-actualization. She smiled at herself, satisfied that she still remembered the prayers.

The Pearl reached behind her back and retrieved a small Sun Goddess statue from her gem. She had not been ordered to store this statue. It did not belong to Bouazzerite or any of her associates. In fact, it was given to her by the Aquamarine’s Pearl while they were discussing the ancient goddesses of Era 1. It was crudely carved and evidently many, many millennia older than its owner. It had been to many planets, and had been possessed by many different gems. Now, it was a lowly green Pearl’s.

She turned around and placed the statue in front of her, against the wall. Nighttime wasn’t the best time to pray to the Sun Goddess of all things, but she knew that moonlight was nothing more than sunlight reflected off the moon. _This should suffice, right?_ She though to the idol. She silently laughed at herself. She was talking to an inanimate object. The Goddess Herself most likely wouldn’t care too extremely if a little stone representing Her Rationality was not in direct sunlight.

_I wonder how many suns She has seen. Is Homeworld’s Her favorite? Did She make every sun? I should ask the Aquamarine’s Pearl next time I see her._

The Pearl held her open hands in front of her, her palms facing the statue. She closed her eyes and let the thoughts tumble out.

Her prayers weren’t the most organized, but she was merely praying a little Pearl prayer, not conducting a jubilee.

_…Bless Yellow Diamond and all the gems in her court. Praise the Sun Goddess. Transmission ended._

The Pearl opened her eyes and looked down at the statue. She placed her hands on her knees. She already felt so much calmer.

_Praise the Sun Goddess, indeed._

She managed to tuck her remaining sadness back into the corners of her eyes and put the Sun Goddess statue back into her gem. Bouazzerite had still not called for her. The Pearl stood up and decided to talk to the Moss Jasper who guarded the door. She opened the door, walked into the gale, and closed the door. The Moss Jasper was still standing at her post on the balcony.

The Pearl didn’t really know how to start conversations, so she just stared at the Moss Jasper’s face. They made eye contact.

“Hi,” the Moss Jasper whispered.

“Hello, my Jasper,” the Pearl whispered back and saluted. The Moss Jasper shook her head.

“You don’t need to call me that. I’m just a Jasper, not an Agate.” The Moss Jasper smiled.

The Pearl awkwardly smiled back. “Yes, my -Moss Jasper. Moss Jasper, I have a question; what is the difference between a Moss Jasper and a Moss Agate?” she asked.

“Agates control us. They look different, too. Have you ever seen an Agate?”

“Unfortunately, no.”

“Ha! ‘Unfortunately.’”

The Moss Jasper snorted with laughter. The Pearl looked around anxiously. She didn’t want Bouazzerite to hear them “goofing around.”

The Moss Jasper noticed the Pearl’s worried look. She had seen the Pearl many times before, but it was rare that they got the chance to talk. Even so, she felt some kind of protectiveness towards her. She put her large mottled hand on her shoulder. The Pearl flinched away. The Moss Jasper frowned and put her hand back down at her side.

“It’s okay, Pearlie. She didn’t hear us.”

The Pearl clasped her own hands and twisted her fingers around anxiously.

“My- Moss Jasper, I hope that my Bouazzerite follows the Diamonds’ orders.”

“What orders?”

“To free all Pearls.”

“Woowww…” The Moss Jasper whistled. “I bet Bouazzerite doesn’t really like that one.”

“Yes, but my Bouazzerite is a loyal gem. Yellow Diamond endorsed the message. Orders must be followed.” The Pearl shrugged.

The Moss Jasper shifted her booted feet. “I didn’t watch any announcement today. All I watched was this door and the Tribrilliant Square.” She pointed at the courtyard down below. The Pyromorphites were gone. A batch of brown Quartzes were doing a training exercise while a Brazilian Agate shouted orders. Their gems glittered in the artificial light.

The Pearl and the Moss Jasper smiled at the gems below them. It felt nice to watch the people who could hurt you at a distance which rendered them powerless.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for physical abuse.

It was a new day. The sun had risen again. The Pearl still felt like she was in some kind of simulation, but she was eager to return to normalcy. She was no Sapphire, but she saw her future laid out before her: one where her enslavement and existence were never to exist separately. She tried not to feel helpless. This was the exact reality which she operated in since she first twirled out of her shell. 

_Am I defective?_

The Pearl suddenly gasped for air. Whenever that thought pushed its way into her mind, it felt as though her throat was closing up. But she wasn’t in need of air. She didn’t even need an atmosphere except to talk. Hearing the gasp, Bouazzerite glared in her direction (though the Pearl couldn’t figure out why) and her Pearl smiled back nervously. Bouazzerite turned her head back to her desk.

_I can’t blame her, _the Pearl thought. _I am getting pretty sick of myself, too._

Bouazzerite sighed and angrily closed her hologram screens. The Pearl’s hands jerked in surprise and she retreated quietly a few floor tiles away from her mistress. The gem began to turn towards her, so the Pearl relaxed her shoulders, remembering that her owner disliked open expressions of fear.

_Did I do something wrong?_

_What’s wrong with me?! Why am I afraid of her? It’s not good for Pearls to be afraid of their owners!_

Bouazzerite stared at her right in the eyes. The Pearl looked at her owner’s desk. It was too intense, otherwise.

The aristocrat took a step towards the Pearl. The servant closed her eyes and at once imagined all the things which might happen in the next few moments: grabbed, hit, shoved, punched, yelled at…

But Bouazzerite only spat “Pearl!” and ordered her to empty her gem. She replied immediately.

“Yes, my Bouazzerite!” The Pearl felt her arms move against her will to behind her back.

Her gem glowed and she felt various objects fall into her hands. After each one hit her palm, she would hold her gem closed until the object was placed gently on the floor, then she would reach behind her back, take out another object, and repeat the process. Her body’s motions were mostly automatic. It was somewhat relieving when she gave into it. After all, it was impossible to do something wrong when you’re forced to do it perfectly.

She even took out the gifts that Bouazzerite had given to her. They had been given to her after Bouazzerite listened to one of Frohbergite’s lectures on “improving Pearl productivity through material reward.” That was the only time Bouazzerite ever gave her material rewards, though. The Pearl sometimes wished that she had received more, because she felt so happy when she did.

_Enough reminiscing; back to the task at hand._

She saw each object flash in her mind’s eye before she decided to take it out. The gifts were an unused floor tile with a yellow rhombus painted on it, and a piece of finely-woven polyethylene terephthalate. The Pearl placed them extra gently on the floor. She couldn’t really find a use for the floor tile, but she liked the small patch of polyethylene because it reminded her of when she visited a War Ship for the first time.

The Pearl skimmed around the walls of her mind, looking for any stray objects. The outline of the Sun Goddess statue flashed over her vision. She pursed her lips, realizing that she would have to take out her only possession. Biting the inside of her cheek, she let the object fall into her hand, then she crouched down and placed it before her on the floor. Her fingertips scraped the grout in between the tiles as she did this. The grout against her gloves against her fingers felt pretty annoying. She found herself wishing that she could take off her gloves again, but the very thought made her anxious.

The Pearl stood up. She didn’t know how Bouazzerite would react to her possession of an idol. A Pearl having an idol wasn’t _disallowed_, yet she wasn’t given permission to hold it, either. She hoped that Bouazzerite wouldn’t punish her for it and tried to quell the anxiety rattling her wrists.

There were fourteen columns and four rows of objects. Most of them were things that Bouazzerite had ordered her Pearl to store, but then forgot about. Both gems quickly realized the majority of the items as nothing more than junk.

_I had all that in my gem?_ the Pearl thought. _What a waste of headspace._

Bouazzerite pointed at the two gifts and the idol with her foot. “What are those?”

The Pearl thought that she should salute, but couldn’t make her arms move in time. Too much of her energy was put into worrying about a potential punishment for answering incorrectly.

“They are the gifts that you gave me, my Bouazzerite. Except for the, the, the Sun Goddess statue.” The Pearl moved her right hand to gesture at the three objects.

“A Sun Goddess statue? I didn’t order you to hold this,” Bouazzerite bent down to grab the small statue. She looked more curious than angry.

“A fellow…” the Pearl swallowed. “I found it on the street and wished to keep it to pray with.” The Pearl knew that she shouldn’t lie, but she hoped that this alternative story would make Bouazzerite less likely to become angry. She also didn’t want the Aquamarine’s Pearl to get in trouble, if the statue did turn out to be contraband.

_I made the wrong choice! _the Pearl yelled internally when she saw Bouazzerite throw the small figure at her. She quickly brought her hands to her face and pulled her left knee to her stomach. The stone bounced off her hip and hit the ground.

“Pearl!” Bouazzerite’s eyes were open wide and her lips formed a paralyzing thin line.

“Yes, my Bouazzerite -?”

“You stole? Why isn’t this programmed into you by now?!”

Bouazzerite started screaming something at her. Probably insults. Definitely threats. The Pearl’s head felt light again. The atrium around her seemed fuzzy, she was looking at it through an impure crystal.

She felt Bouazzerite shove her chest. She felt her elbow bump against the windowsill. She felt herself crying. She felt overcome with emotion, yet emotionless at the same time.

Bouazzerite’s face broke through the clouds. The Pearl’s whole body suddenly felt cold, like she had been dropped into an ammonia lake. Bouazzerite grabbed the Pearl's right wrist.

“Is this the only way you’ll learn?” Bouazzerite demanded. She gave an exasperated laugh.

“Well, I’m not going to put any more effort into teaching you. I tried, Pearl, but you are just so disrespectful!”

The Pearl gasped for air again. For a second, she thought that Bouazzerite would push her through the glass and out the window.

Bouazzerite yanked on the Pearl’s thin arm, sending her tumbling into the hallway leading to the balcony exit. The mural of Bouazzerite on the wall loomed over her.

“Leave! You’re freed! Liberated! Manumitted! Why don’t you smile now?”

“What?” The Pearl squeaked.

Bouazzerite’s eyes flowed with anger. The Pearl felt her body move as if on its own. She sprinted to the door, opened it, closed it, and ran onto the balcony.

“Whoa!”

The Pearl whipped around. It was the Moss Jasper with the left knee gem. The same one she talked to the day before.

“I have to leave,” the Pearl explained. When she spoke, it sounded like her voice was coming from another room.

The Moss Jasper noticed the Pearl’s tears. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yeah.” It wasn’t even that cold out, but she felt numb. “Have a good day, my Jasper.”

The Pearl stumbled down the balcony, still shaking. She had no problems following Bouazzerite’s order to leave, because she never wanted to see that office again.


	6. Chapter 6

The Pearl blinked against the cloudless sky. The sun was nearing its zenith, and it hurt her eyes just to look indirectly at it. Judging by the sun’s change in position, she had been sitting at the Fluid Inclusion Recreational Center for two hours. Two hours since she arrived, making that two and a half hours since she had been manumitted.

The Pearl shifted her position slightly so that her body was fully in the shade of the entranceway. She was sitting on the hot ground, with her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. Her chin rested in between them. She had assumed this position with the hopes that it would help her think of what to do next.

After her former Bouazzerite kicked her out that morning, the Pearl’s only goal had been to get to somewhere where her ex-mistress would be unlikely to find her. A deep terror had seized her chest, that Bouazzerite would find her and change her mind. The Pearl didn’t know which potential future she dreaded more: one where she was enslaved again, or one where she was given a more physical punishment. 

_Both futures would probably coexist, anyway, _she thought to herself. She pressed the palm of her hand against her forehead. _Oh, no. I must have cried myself into a headache._

The Pearl knew that she should probably insult herself for doing something like this, but she couldn’t come up with the energy for it. Despite being so exhausted, she couldn’t let her guard down, or else Bouazzerite may find her. It was as though she had been ordered to be afraid; mentally, she no longer wanted to, yet her body snatched away the remaining scraps of her energy, anyway. It dug at the bottom of her energy reserves like an Aventurine scrapes at tunnel walls.

The Pearl heard the sound of boots hitting cement and looked up in fear. It was a Quartz who had approached her. Most likely a Sagenite, judging off her gray skin and blonde hair. She briefly made eye contact. Or at least, eye contact with one of her eyes. The Sagenite’s right eye socket was filled with the mass of her gray-and-yellow gem. The Pearl lowered her gaze to the soldier’s knees and hugged herself tighter.

_Please don’t let that Quartz touch me._

“Um,” the Sagenite started. “Are you waiting for someone?”

The Pearl jumped to her feet so quickly in response that her gem bumped against the cement column she was sitting near. She wretched.

“Ugh! Blech!”

“Oh! You hit your gem?” 

The Pearl reached behind her back and rubbed her fingertips on the surface of her gem. There were no abrasions.

“I’m unharmed,” the Pearl shuddered. She straightened herself and took a deep breath. _It’s okay. She’s a soldier, but she doesn’t have any reason to attack me. _She nevertheless took a step away from the muscular Quartz.

The Pearl saluted. “I’m not waiting for anyone. My apologies, my, um, uh… Quartz! I will leave immediately.”

The Sagenite held up her own hands. “Wait, wait! You don’t have to leave. I was just wondering ‘cause you were hanging out here so long.

Were you ordered to stay here?” The Sagenite asked in her gravelly voice.

“No!” The Pearl shook her head. She laughed nervously. She didn’t mean to display such a strong emotion.

“I mean, I-I don’t belong to anyone anymore…” The Pearl thought about Bouazzerite and her anger. Her knees shook. She was too tired to feel overly scared this time. She just felt sad, instead.

“Aw,” the Sagenite cooed patronizingly. The Pearl felt the Quartz’s large, warm hand cup her cheek. Her stomach dropped at the contact.

“Don’t worry.” The Pearl looked up into the gem’s sharp, yellow eyes. “You can belong to me.”

Shaking, the Pearl slinked out of the Sagenite’s hand. “No, thanks!” Her heart was racing. She’d never denied a gem something before. She felt so guilty.

“I’m fine, my Quartz. I-I’ll just leave.” She began to walk backwards into the vast concrete courtyard behind her. “Have a good day,” she mumbled and turned around.

She walked quickly across the courtyard. Her bare feet hurt against the ground and her dark green dress made her feel uncomfortably warm. She rubbed the sweat from her philtrum.

“Pearl!” She heard someone call. _Are they calling for me?! _The voice was tiny. She put her right hand to her forehead to shield her eyes from the sun and looked around.

“Yeah! The Pearl with the back gem!” The Pearl covered her ears. _Oh no, oh no; what did I do wrong?_ Hopelessness made her chest weigh heavy again.

She looked down and saw a Ruby guard with a forehead gem trodding towards her._ It’s just a Ruby, _she thought. _I’m being silly. _She lowered her hands, embarrassed, and looked past the Ruby to see two more guards and fancy Yellow Sapphire standing near a tall, angular stone fountain of a stylized Yellow Diamond. The Pearl hoped that the Sapphire hadn’t lost her Pearl and was looking for a replacement._ What would I do then? Would I run away?_

The Ruby poked her thigh. The Pearl bounced away with a yelp. The Ruby widened her eyes and looked around.

“Pearl,” the Ruby said. “My Sapphire dropped her matter transpondence wand into the fountain. Retrieve it for her.”

The Pearl stared down at the Ruby and waited for her body to complete the task for her. She waited for pulling sensation upon her legs, the mechanical, automatic movements of her limbs, but remained fully in control. Her muscles were as tense as ever. The Ruby blinked up at her, then gave her Sapphire a worried glance.

“Of course, my Ruby,” the Pearl pushed out of her throat. She pulled herself, consciously, to the fountain.

The Ruby giggled. “‘My Ruby!’ Ha! I like the sound of that.” She marched alongside the Pearl, who stalled a bit so she would be walking a few paces behind the Ruby.

“See?” The Sapphire grinned as they approached. “I told you she would do it.”

The Ruby laughed nervously and scratched her cubic head. “I never doubted you, my Sapphire.”

The Pearl stepped up on the fountain and onto the water. She stepped deliberately, her feet making wet slaps against the surface. She tried not to think about falling through it.

She reached the wand. Below her, a Ruby was standing at the bottom of the fountain and jumping, slowly, trying to get the object._ They’re so short! _the Pearl marveled. _No wonder they fuse so often._

She crouched down, making sure that her feet didn’t break the surface. She reached out and wrapped her fingers around the wand, her fingertips dipping into the water that it floated upon. Task complete, and gloves dripping with water, she stood up and walked back to the Sapphire.

“Your wand, my Clarency.” The Pearl bowed and handed the Sapphire the wand. She felt so honored just to be in the presence of such an esteemed gem. The Sapphire smiled and the Pearl couldn’t help but smile back. She felt proud of herself.

“Wow,” a Ruby guard with a nose gem gasped. She was sitting on the hot concrete ground next to her ward. “I wish I could walk on water.” The Sapphire turned her head to the Ruby, presumably looking at her fondly.

“You could,” another Ruby squeaked from behind, her head popping out of the water. The Pearl couldn’t determine her gem placement from this angle. “You’d just have to fuse with a Pearl.”

The Sapphire frowned and the other Rubies exchanged uncertain glances. The Pearl grimaced. She felt fear that transponded into anger. _What’s wrong with this gem? You don’t talk about cross-gem fusion in public, _she thought. _Now your Sapphire’s going to punish us all for your faux pas!_

The Pearl was going to say something, something like “don’t be silly!” to show her devotion to the Diamond Order. To distance herself from this gem. To avoid punishment. But, the Sapphire spoke first and sealed the Pearl’s mouth shut.

“I suppose, one day, that you could, Ruby. The times are changing,” she sighed. “It used to be that different gems couldn’t fuse at all, but I can see recreational fusing being legalized in our future.” The Sapphire nodded solemnly.

“Whaat?” The nose Ruby gasped again.

“I personally have no interest in cross-gem fusing, nor have I ever.” The yellow gem sounded proud of herself. “I predict that it would be hard to regulate.”

The other gems marveled at the Sapphire’s wisdom.

The Sapphire turned to the Pearl. “Are you looking for other freed Pearls?” she asked.

“Oh, I suppose so.” The Pearl looked at her hands.

“You will find some Pearls at the Facet 8 Lodestone building.”

“Where is that, my Sapphire?”

“I do not know where it is, just that you’ll find Pearls there.” The Sapphire gave her a quick smile. “Good luck finding it, though,” she whispered.

The Pearl watched the Sapphire and her guards titter away and went off to find a map.


	7. Chapter 7

According to the map that the Pearl had downloaded while wandering around, the Lodestone building was standing near a craterous Kindergarten, riddled with holes formed when the colony was still young. The Pearl looked up at her surroundings - orienting herself - and referenced the map again.

_I am right near the Scorzalite Fountain Maintenance Center, which means that if I continue walking forward past the MonoClinic… I should reach the Lodestone building with no trouble at all._

The Pearl liked to have a mission assigned to her. Maybe it was her programming, or maybe it was because when she was focused on finding a building, she didn’t have the brain-space to become paralyzed by the possibility of being found by Bouazzerite.

The Pearl re-focused her eyes on the buildings surrounding her. She saw the MonoClinic looming over her, glowing white. She squinted her eyes. _Does the MonoClinic have to glow during the day? I guess that they do need a steady supply of light. _She felt a little bit intimidated by the building’s blatant call for attention, and quickly walked its length.

The closer to the Kindergarten’s edge, the less dense the infrastructure became. Around her were crumbling factories and decrepit warehouses, once teeming with labor during the initial colonization of the planet, but now unused and empty. Between them were plots of land scarred by the buildings which had previously been there. The Pearl felt a little bad for the Bismuths in this Facet, toiling hard five thousand years ago, only for their works to be abandoned once it was no longer useful.

_Useful… _The Pearl’s thoughts wandered as she walked the dusty pathway to her destination. She heard a thrumming sound and looked above her at a yellow cargo vehicle flying overhead. It landed near a massive, black, octahedral mass with no windows and countless gleaming white pipes running into and out of it. That was the Lodestone building.

The Pearl felt like turning around and warping back to the Tribrilliant Square, where everything was familiar and somewhat predictable, and the buildings stood tall around her like a huddle of Topazes guarding an Aquamarine; where she belonged. 

_Belonged…_

The Pearl stopped in her tracks, standing upon the uncomfortable road.

_Belonged…_

She felt as though a heavy blanket of sadness had been draped over her form. She didn’t belong at this building. She didn’t belong anywhere, or to anyone. _But isn’t that a good thing?_

The Pearl recalled the joy she felt when she saw the Diamonds’ broadcast. She watched it again, projected onto the ground from her gem, unconsciously hugging herself. She could do what she wanted to, now. She didn’t have to follow anybody’s orders but the Diamonds’.

That made her feel a little lighter. Not in an empty way, but in a happy way. She felt hopeful. She held onto that hope as though it were a Parkerite in a windstorm.

She gripped her shoulders. _What do I want to do? What an overwhelming question. _She wanted to meet other Pearls, certainly. After all, she was going to whether she wanted to or not. Wanting it just made it easier.

She took quiet steps towards the building.

——————

The Pearl hadn’t seen pipes this big in centuries. The biggest ones shone against the smooth exterior of the building like stars in the night sky. The diameter of some of them were probably as long as Bouazzerite’s office floor itself, the Pearl guessed. The Pearl also noticed that despite being surrounded by abandoned architecture, the building before her was still very much in use. Thick plumes of smoke billowed out from some of the pipes, darkening the midday sky with their airborne filth. Others were positioned with their spouts hanging over the canyon wall. Yet other pipes snaked from the side of the building and into the dirt, no doubt transporting material underground. The whole area hummed with machinery, like it was singing its own song about fire and particulates and air rushing through tubes.

There was a Bismuth with a right hand-gem sitting on the steps leading up to one of the side entrances. Judging by the door’s industrial look, that was probably the only entrance she had access to. The builder waved at the Pearl.

“Do you like the pipes?” She yelled.

“Oh, yes, my Bismuth! They remind me of Warship propulsion engines!” The Pearl laughed, glad that someone also took an interest in the pipes.

The Bismuth beckoned to the Pearl, who obediently began to walk toward her.

“I just finished fixing that one,” the Bismuth explained, pointing with her right hand to a particularly shiny pipe just fifty feet above them.

“Wow! Excellent work, my Bismuth!” the Pearl cheered. The Bismuth frowned. 

“Don’t call me that.”

“My apologies, m… Bismuth.” The Pearl squeezed her hands. _I disappointed her. _She imagined, without projecting it this time, the Bismuth slapping her with one of her large hands. Fear pushed her eyelids wider. She began to think of ways to escape without the Bismuth noticing.

But the Bismuth kept her arms down.

“What are you here for, Pearl?” the Bismuth asked.

“I am looking for other Pearls. I was told that there would be Pearls near this building,” the Pearl responded, her enthusiasm gone from her voice.

“Oh, yeah! There’s a little Pearl jubilee down in the Kindergarten, near columns 56A to Z, I think. You know.” The Bismuth placed her left hand on the wall next to the door. A yellow diamond-shaped glow appeared, and the door clanked open.

“You can use the Lodestone warp to get there if you like.” The Bismuth said.

“Yes, B-Bismuth.” The Pearl walked through the door, which closed behind her. The Bismuth hadn’t followed her inside.

She was in a hallway. The walls were off-white and curved, like she was walking through one of the pipes outside. The floor was flat cement, dark with condensation. It felt horrible on her feet.

At the end of the hallway was a door that fortunately opened at the Pearl’s touch. It opened to a large, cylindrical room with a warp pad in the middle, on a raised platform. The pad looked like the highest-tech object in the room. The Pearl stepped gingerly onto the warp pad, leaving damp footprints in her wake. She looked around for any gems seeing her. She wasn’t sure why she did that; she was used to entering buildings while following orders. Yet, she hadn’t been ordered here. She felt as though she were sneaking around. She felt as though one of the doors would open, revealing her ex-owner, ready to berate her for “slacking off.”

_If there’s one place Bouazzerite would never go, it’s the Facet 8 kindergarten, right?_

The Pearl didn’t waste any more time and entered warp-space.


	8. Chapter 8

The Pearl lazily drifted upwards in the cyan warp shaft. The upwards momentum was a bit sluggish, the Pearl noticed. She wasn’t going that far, was she? Just to the kindergarten. This was an intraplanetary warp, too.

_Perhaps it is just a relatively old piece of technology,_ she wondered. _I doubt that the Lodestone building receives technological updates very often. _

The Pearl saw a line of light flickering in and out of her peripheral vision. She moved her shoulders back. Was she seeing warps shine through her own? _What a silly thought, _she chastised herself. _There’s never been a record of collisions in warp space. _

Against the paranoid thoughts whispering at the back of her mind, she relaxed her shoulders. Incidentally, at the same moment, the walls of light surrounding her was replaced by a different, yet somehow more blinding, luminescence. Smooth crystal collided with her feet, and she wobbled against the sudden change in gravity.

The Pearl looked up and saw a wide crack of sunlight peeking through the black canyon walls. There were countless, maybe thousands, of gem-shaped holes in the tall vertical rock, scattering the cliff side like depictions of subjects in an adamantine mural.

The Pearl clutched her hands. She had never been to a kindergarten before. Her former owner designed weapons, not injectors. The Pearl also felt slightly out of place in this barren location. Her Bouazzerite had emerged here (not that the Pearl wanted to go looking for her silhouette), but the Pearl hadn’t. At least, she could not remember emerging from a kindergarten. All she remembered was singing a little song, doing a little dance, and entering a pre-programmed servile trance.

The Pearl giggled at her rhyme. Bouazzerite had never ordered her Pearl to sing beyond testing to see if the feature was available, but that didn’t stop her former slave from imagining songs.  
_  
Not that anyone would want to hear my songs, anyway, _the Pearl reminded herself as she carefully descended the fifteen-foot tall cube which the warp pad was installed into. She dropped onto the ground.

_Ugh. _The ground was intermittently covered in stinging grains of fine gravel and sand. The Pearl stepped to a smooth part of the rocky ground to wipe the embedded pebbles off her feet, but there were going to be loose particles of sediment no matter where she stepped. She gave up, sighed, and walked through the bottom of the vast yawn of the kindergarten.

The air smelled metallic. There was no doubt that particulates were drifting through the dreary air. She felt what seemed to be moisture condense on her face, but whenever she brought her fingers up to touch her skin, it was dry.

_I may be confusing cold for wetness, _she thought. She scratched her neck, her fingernails gliding over the smooth skin._ I hope that doesn’t mean that I’m defective._

_Never mind, never mind. If you were defective, you would have been shattered by now._

_But what if —_

The Pearl stopped herself. She was making “what if” statements again. She tried to remember what Bluish Pearl had told her, back when she was Frohbergite’s Pearl.

She remembered fearing that Bluish Pearl would report her for having such irrational thoughts. She remembered how Bluish Pearl instead tilted her head sympathetically, touching her light blue fingers to her green arms, and pulling away when the green Pearl flinched. She remembered them standing close, maybe a head apart from one another.

“Think about what Yellow Diamond would do,” she remembered hearing Bluish Pearl say. “Focus on the facts. They’re all that you know for certain.”

_Don’t be irrational, Pearl. There is no evidence that you are defective. _The Pearl wrapped her arms around her chest in an attempt to squeeze the remaining tension out of it. She pressed harder. It felt comforting when she placed both of her arms vertically against her sternum, where the edge of her sweetheart neckline dipped downwards. She wished that Frohbergite’s former Pearl was there now. Bluish Pearl had seen her be weak before.

She felt so tired and hopeless. She wanted to lie down on the gritty rocks and curl into a ball. She wanted to regress back into her gem and pull her holographic oyster shell over her face. When she got like this, her fears would cloud her vision like a darkly-colored veil, pushing her eyes to the ground to see clearly. The Pearl sadly brushed the metaphorical cloth off of her face and walked towards the sound of faint chatter in the distance.

The Bismuth had grossly overstated the size of the gathering. It was definitely not a “jubilee”; it was hardly even a get-together. The Pearl assessed the crowd and estimated that there were no more than twenty Pearls congregated between columns 56A to 56Z. The Pearl was somewhat relieved that there wasn’t a large crowd. While she was more likely to be noticed in a small crowd, it was also less overwhelming.

As she approached the gathering, a dark green Tahitian Pearl walked out and towards her. She was wearing a leotard and her torso seemed to be encased in a sphere of mesh, with her legs and lower arms sticking out. The Pearl saw that her gem was below her mental region.

“Hello,” the Tahitian Pearl greeted her. Bouazzerite’s former Pearl returned the greeting. The pair began to walk side-by-side towards the larger group of Pearls.

“I don’t believe we’ve ever met,” the light green Pearl laughed nervously. “I used to belong to a Bouazzerite gem.” She frowned as she said it. “W-who do you belong to?”

The Tahitian Pearl lifted an eyebrow. “I don’t belong to nobody,” she mumbled. The Pearl’s olive-green eyes flashed to the light green Pearl’s with irritation. Bouazzerite’s former Pearl felt a sinking feeling in her chest, like a heavy rock drifting through magma.

“My apologies… Pearl. I meant ‘did belong to’. Haha! made a mistake…” she trailed off in embarrassment. I can’t even apologize correctly.

They were now standing just on the edge of the party, and other Pearls were turning around to look at the two of them. Another Tahitian Pearl (this one jet-black, with straight hair and a wide grin) cut through the small multicolored crowd to amble towards the Bouazzerite’s former Pearl.

“Hello,” the black Pearl said, a little shyly. The light green Pearl was about to return the greeting, but was interrupted.

“I used to belong to Ilmenite Facet-8 Cabochon-6MC.” The black Pearl gave one of her hands a flourish, and gestured to the still-visible part of the Lodestone building, which looked like a black nub from the kindergarten. _Oh. Ilmenites. They run refuse incineration plants. _“I helped to organize this celebration,” the black Pearl continued, and curtsied.

The light green Pearl looked around. She had many questions, but was afraid to ask them. “Good job,” she managed to say. The black Pearl smiled wider. Seeing her grin made the green Pearl smile slightly back.

The dark green Tahitian Pearl looked more relaxed now. She turned her face to the black Pearl, her eyes half-lidded.

“I’m glad you put the celebration here,” she sighed. “It’s nice not to have all those Diamantes staring at us.” The black Pearl snickered at this remark.

“What? It’s true…”

The light green Pearl stepped back and watched the Pearls socialize.

Pearls laughing, Pearls chatting, Pearls happy and free. They could converse with one another without keeping one ear perked for their mistresses’ orders. They could discuss their desires to enter interstellar space, or plan a kindergarten, or piece together mosaics without defeatedly laughing at the absurdity of it all.The light green Pearl tapped her knuckles happily, but kept her distance.

She thought about what her Bouazzerite had told her about congregations of lower-class gems. Without a strong gem to supervise them, her Bouazzerite warned her that congregations were rife with unauthorized fusing, color-tourism, and other “unacceptable behaviors.” The light green Pearl had not witnessed any of these activities taking place so far. She did not think that Pearls, of all minerals, would partake in such things.

She stood on her tiptoes, her eyes scanning the rainbow of heads of Pearls. Her eyes widened (this time with excitement, not fear). She _did_ recognize some of the Pearls here! At least she thought that she did.

_Don’t get your hopes up too high, Pearl._

The Pearl hurried over to the familiar forms, trying to preemptively brace herself for disappointment. Excitement overrode her cynicism, though. One of them turned around and made eye contact with her. The light green Pearl instantly recognized that face. She felt her fists clench painfully tight in sheer joy. 

Bluish Pearl smiled. Maybe it was the strange way that the light reflected off the black walls of the canyon, but it looked as though her face was glowing.

“Bluish Pearl!”

“Ha! You’re here!”

They ran towards each other with their arms outstretched.

What happened next was very quick and definitely unexpected. The two did not collide. There wasn’t a bumping of hard light against hard light. It was more like soft light against soft light. They kept moving through one another as though they were swimming through water. They couldn’t see in front of them anymore; their vision was obscured by a blinding white light. The light green Pearl felt her body push forwards and flow backwards, formless. She felt as though she were sunbathing in the glow of a dying star. She felt energized. 

She tried to move her arms. She tried to _locate_ her arms.

_Where are my arms? Where are my… Oh, my shining stars!_

The two Pearls fell to the ground, solid and whole and sovereign and separate. They were laying on the ground only inches away from each other, but the borders between them were independent, now. Their legs touched, and the light green Pearl felt relieved that the flesh covering both of their shins were unyielding.

_I can’t believe I did that. Does this mean I can’t be friends with Bluish Pearl anymore?!_

A shadow was cast on them. It belonged to an orange Pearl. 

“Oh! Forgive me!” Bouazzerite’s former Pearl yelped. Her emotions - a combination of fear, exhilaration, and shame - overwhelmed her. She began to cry.

“We didn’t mean to-“ Bluish Pearl started.

The orange Pearl gave a startled laugh.

“Aw, it’s alright. You’re both Pearls. Have you two never fused before?”

“Oh, my stars! Never!” gasped Bluish Pearl, blushing furiously. The orange Pearl peered at her.

“Never? Not at a jubilee, or for a performance?”

“No,” moped the light green Pearl. She rubbed her wet face. She looked up and, to her surprise, she saw a sky-blue Pearl with a forehead gem - the religious Pearl that used to belong to the Aquamarine. The light green Pearl felt ashamed.

“You Era 2 Pearls have no culture!” she heard the Aquamarine’s former Pearl proclaim. The light green Pearl got on her feet.

“So, it’s okay?” she asked in a barely audible whisper.

“Of course!” the orange Pearl and the Aquamarine’s former Pearl yelled in unison.

“Wow.” A low voice from behind her. The light green Pearl turned around. A bored-looking cream Pearl was standing over a grinning Bluish Pearl. “I didn’t know you two had such an intimate relationship.” Bluish Pearl blushed harder at the remark.

“Ignore her,” the light green Pearl hissed to Bluish Pearl. They both laughed.

The light green Pearl felt a little more okay. She wasn’t going to be punished. She was safe.


	9. No Text, Just a Picture of Orange Pearl and Pious Pearl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Art is by me.
> 
> Orange Pearl (left) and Pious Pearl (right). Pious Pearl is the chosen name of the Aquamarine’s former Pearl.
> 
> Context: right after Bluish Pearl and Bouazzerite’s former Pearl accidentally almost fuse, Bouazzerite’s former Pearl asks if what she did was okay. The two Pearls shown answer with “Of course!” This took place in the previous chapter; I just felt like drawing it. :-)


	10. Chapter 10

The Pearl grew to be grateful of the gritty ground. Feeling the pebbles push against her legs helped to remind her of where she was. She sometimes felt as though the fog that had enveloped her during Bouazzerite’s last outburst had followed her to the kindergarten, absorbed by her gem.

The Pearl was resting against a slick boulder next to Bluish, who was having a conversation with a red Pearl and a cream Pearl. The light green Pearl listened in on the conversation, but kept her eyes locked on the deepening green sunset shining past the Lodestone building. She hoped that, by looking busy, the three other Pearls wouldn’t encourage her to enter their conversation. She still felt so tired. _Will I always be this tired? Did I do something to mess up my emittance software?_

The boulder’s rocky surface pushed uncomfortably against the hard light of the Pearl’s scalp. She shifted her head and listened to the Pearls around her casually talk about their hopes for the future.

“…I think that I would like to visit Homeworld one day. Isn’t it strange, how it’s our ‘home’ yet I’ve never been to it…”

“…I wonder what’ll happen to the aristocrats whose gem orders are still being processed. D’you think they’ll stop Pearl production…”

“…I’ve always wanted to see what’s past the Foid belt, but my Fillowite was never required there…”

The light green Pearl looked down from the clouds. The high walls of the kindergarten made her chest squeeze. Of course, the sheer magnitude of the structure was awesome to the Pearl, but with cliffs this steep, the only way out was through the warp pad.

The Pearl imagined the quickest escape route in case Bouazzerite found her.

_There are lots of Pearls here. That would distract her. I could sprint to the warp pad. If she blocks my way, I’ll jump as high as I can. If she slams me against the ground, I’ll get up at quickly as I can and run back and hide in an emergence hole—_

A fluttering sound snapped her out of her thoughts. She looked to her right and saw a trio of Pearls standing some distance away. It was the Aquamarine’s former Pearl, the orange Pearl, and another pale green Pearl. That Pearl in particular was where the sound originated from, she realized. The Pearl was pulling yards of fabric out from her left-eye gem.

The light green Pearl got up, crept away from Bluish, and approached them.

The pale green Pearl had tugged two long pieces of fabric from her eye. The fabric was a very dark green. In the shade, it looked almost black, yet it maintained the glossy sheen of polyester. She draped these cloths over the delicate heads of the orange and former Aquamarine’s Pearl with the grace of a gem who had done the same action millions of times before. 

The Aquamarine’s former Pearl evaluated the cloth.

“These are quite good,” she affirmed.

“That was very nice of you, Seafoam,” the orange Pearl added. 

“Oh, well, I’m not Strashimirite’s anymore. I don’t necessarily need all the cloth I’ve got floating around in my gem,” Seafoam Pearl shrugged and laughed. The other Pearls laughed, too. Bouazzerite’s former Pearl took a few steps towards the three.

“Excuse me,” she murmured as she approached. She felt their eyes turn on her. “May I ask what you are doing?”

The orange Pearl bowed. “We are preparing for a blessing ceremony.” Could a voice sound like a color? Hers sounded orange, somehow. The light green Pearl took a step back, not sure if she was doing something worthy of being punished. _Who would punish me, the Pearls? Ha, ha. _She imagined the Pearls hitting her with their tiny fists.

“My apologies,” she frowned.

“What?!” the orange Pearl gasped. She looked genuinely disappointed.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt your sacred duties.”

The orange Pearl slipped towards her. “Oh, you’re not interrupting anything.” She gestured to the Aquamarine’s former Pearl with a servile smile. “Pious Pearl told me that you worship the old stone goddesses. And I used to work for a Sunstone.”

The light green Pearl’s eyes glistened with curiosity. “A Sunstone?” She wanted to ask more, but she kept her mouth shut. 

“Yes,” said the orange Pearl. “but it doesn’t matter anymore who I used to work for. I’m not Sunstone’s Pearl; I am Orange Pearl. She’s-“ she pointed at the Aquamarine’s former Pearl -“no longer Aquamarine’s Pearl; she is Pious Pearl.”

“And,” the pale green Pearl interjected joyfully, but respectfully. “and I am not Strashimirite’s Pearl; I am Seafoam!”

“That’s a lovely name,” the light green Pearl told her. She meant it.

“Thank you,” replied the pale green Pearl. “Have you ever been to the sea? In Facet 13?” Seafoam tapped her eye gem idly. The light green Pearl decided that she would try to become friends with this Pearl.

“No,” the light green Pearl said. “I have seen the ammonia fog planes in Facet 17, though.” Seafoam stiffened her arms and jumped out of happiness.

“Oh! The fog planes! I remember when my Strashimirite had to make protective cloaks for the Nephrites passing through the densest layers! It smelled awful!” When Seafoam spoke, she moved her body like she was performing a tiny dance. The light green Pearl smiled at the other Pearl’s energy._ I wish that I were that energetic._

“That was before Yellow Diamond sent the Salammoniacs in, right?” asked Bouazzerite’s former Pearl. The words sort of got caught in her throat. _Ugh, I’m pathetic. I cannot even hold a conversation correctly. _Seafoam didn’t notice.

“Mm-hmm. Oh, I wish that those gems stayed. Who knew that such sectile minerals could withstand such harsh conditions?”

“Well,” cut in Pious, “obviously, every gem is made perfectly for her function. Our physical properties are determined by the Goddesses’ Contrivance.” _Contrivance_. The word made the light green Pearl feel nostalgic. It made her think about standing on the deck of a Hand Ship, listening to Pious Pearl tell her about the Era 1 goddesses for the first time. It also made her think about Bouazzerite coming out from the door behind her.

The light green Pearl blinked her way back into reality. She focused on the outline of Pious’s face. It was slightly fuzzy, like a camera that hadn’t been calibrated yet. She didn’t want to get balled up in her mind again. Her mind was terrifying, sometimes.

“Speaking of the goddesses, we shouldn’t keep Her waiting.” Orange Pearls voice cut through the settling fog. The light green Pearl looked at her head. The way that the warm sunlight shone through Orange’s mesh collar made her feel more grounded, somehow. Maybe it was because it could only happen in the kindergarten, and there she was. Firmly, solidly, in the kindergarten. She could feel her feet on the ground, the condensation on her upper back, the sun’s heat on her face. She blinked, and felt the skin of her eyelids touch.

_There. I’m fully calibrated._

Pious Pearl asked her, “Would you like to participate in the prayer, um…” The blue Pearl put her hands on her hips. “You haven’t designated yourself, have you?”

“Designated myself?”

“You don’t belong to_ her _anymore. Pearls are not given Facet and Cabochon numbers, anyway. You deserve distinction from other Pearls. What do you want to go by now?”

The Pearl tried to think of a name for herself. What did people call her, except “Pearl”? The Moss Jasper near her former owner’s office used to sometimes call her “Fluffs”.

_That’s a silly name, but I’m a silly Pearl, _she thought bitterly.

“Fluffs,” she murmured, waiting for the Pearl’s around her to laugh.

“What?” asked Seafoam. The three Pearls inched closer to the light green Pearl. 

“U-um, Fluffs!” she said louder.

“Ooh, nice!” Seafoam exclaimed. Fluffs breathed a sigh of relief. They were not going to mock her. Or, maybe they were just pretending to be nice. Maybe it was a stupid name. She didn’t know.

“Okay, Fluffs, wanna participate in the prayer?” Pious asked impatiently. Fluffs hesitated.

“I do not know what we are praying about.”

“Oh, we’re just thanking the Sun Goddess for shining Her Rationality onto Yellow Diamond and asking her to bless our newfound freedom,” Orange said, as if it were no big deal.

“I-I’ll just watch,” Fluffs said. _If the Pearls had bothered to wear makeshift prayer shawls, then perhaps I should not interfere with my amateur knowledge._

She stood back, next to Seafoam, and patiently watched Orange Pearl and Pious Pearl dance and fuse into a beautiful Abalone Pearl.

“Ohh!” Fluffs yelped. _How embarrassing for them! _She watched the multicolored Pearl twirl with bated breath. Granted, the fusion was beautiful, but what was she doing here?!

Seafoam leaned over to Fluffs. Fluffs leaned away from her as politely as possible.

Seafoam gestured at the fusion. “It's okay. It’s some kind of ancient ritual,” she whispered. Fluffs felt very uncomfortable, and this made her a little angry.

“No disrespect to Pious or Orange, but if it’s ancient, then why are they performing it now, in Era 3?” She whispered back desperately._ They’re not supposed to be doing this. Fusion is not allowed unless explicitly permitted. We’ll all be punished!_

The fusion started chanting something about yellow helmets and the supreme equality of reason. Fluffs looked at the figure sheepishly. Part of her wished that she had participated in the prayer.

She thought to herself: _There are no authorities here. Who cares if two gems fuse? I almost fused with my friend… I hope that we are still friends. Bluish didn’t seem upset about it. It was kind of exhilarating, to be honest. Actually, I didn’t even know that fusing was wrong until I was told so, which was odd, considering that gems are made with all the knowledge that we need._

_If gems aren’t supposed to fuse, then why did the Goddesses tell the Diamonds to allow our forms to? Was it an oversight? No, the Diamonds are flawless. Maybe they misinterpreted the Moon Goddess’s message?_

The thought of the Diamonds committing such an error made Fluffs feel sad. Misunderstandings, even hypothetical ones, just made her feel that way.

There was a flash of light. Orange Pearl and Pious Pearl had separated into their own bodies. Fluffs felt a strange mixture of disappointment and relief. This was a much more predictable situation, with no fusions around, but Fluffs also wished that she wasn’t encouraged by social norms to look away.

A debaucherous thought entered her mind. It became harder to breathe.


	11. Chapter 11

The Pearls idled in the kindergarten. They couldn’t think of anything to do except enjoy each others’ company. There seemed to be an even mix of Pearls who looked eager to find something else to do, and Pearls who were glad that there was nothing currently expected of them.

Fluffs wanted to let her shoulders down, but a worry lingered in the back of her mind that if she were to relax for too long, somebody would inevitably come and punish her for her laziness. She desperately wanted to relax, though. She still desired to curl into a ball on the ground and close a holographic shell over her form. She imagined that happening, and felt warm light shine on her back. She was projecting her thoughts, but she couldn’t conjure up the energy to care. She watched her projected light shine off the rock behind her and smear onto the ground.

It was dark out. The sun had set. The only things illuminating the kindergarten now were the distant sparkling of the Lodestone building, and the glow emulating form other Pearl’s gems. The way that the light reflected off of the smooth, damp stone, illuminating every line of strata, made the Pearl feel very tangible. Fluffs half-expected Microsommites to emerge from hidden doors to scrub the floor of some Dolomite’s footprints. _That would be a waste of minerals. We’re in a kindergarten, not a city._

She felt her back muscles relax slightly as her gem ceased emitting a hologram projection. She decided to lie laterally on the ground, with her gem facing Bluish’s leg. It was very cold. The frigidity of the dirt snaked through her shoulders. _Is that condensation dripping from that emergence hole?_

Her form was slowly adjusting to the temperature. She just had to be patient. That was something which she found odd about this planet and this colony._ Why does it become colder the higher you go? Why is it warm near the planet’s Heart? Why are there only fog planes and lakes in the mountains?_

_Why do the elites stay in the colder locations? _she wondered.

She saw that Bluish had her face pointed to the sky, and looked past her to see what she was looking at. The sky was such a dark green. It looked like the fabrics that Seafoam had pulled from her gem.

“Have,” Fluffs started. “-have you ever been to any of the Facet Arteries recently, Bluish?” She saw Bluish turn to look at her. The shadows cast on her by the night sky somehow made the sphere of her face look concave, for a moment. It always creeped Fluffs out when such a misperception occurred. Being hard light creatures, it wasn’t as though they would never occasionally look inside-out. _It’s not my fault that it happens. It’s not the gem’s fault, either. Oh, wait. Maybe it is my fault, technically._

Bluish Pearl spoke, but her words puffed over Fluffs head.

_Perhaps I should unroll from my mind. _Fluffs smiled. That is such a funny-sounding phrase.

“What’re you smiling at?” Fluffs smiled wider. If there hadn’t been so many unfamiliar Pearls surrounding her, she might have even showed her teeth.

Fluffs lifted her right hand and used it to point to the celestial objects in the sky.

“Look, it’s the third day of Proxima’s lunar cycle,” she said, referring to the moon that shone red.

“How can you tell?” Bluish asked. Prepared, Fluffs reached into her mind and pulled out the answer.

“You can barely see Distala from behind Media.” She waved her fingers in the general direction of the greenish moon, with a purple crescent peeking out from behind it.

“Ohhh… you’re right.” Fluffs felt a sense of accomplishment, though she told herself that she shouldn’t. Remembering and relating information appropriately was just the baseline of the expectations of a Pearl.

“How do you know so much about the moons?” Bluish asked. It was a gentle prodding, not an accusatory stab.

Fluffs answered, “It’s important to know where natural satellites are when launching interplanetary attacks. Or just for long-distance surveillance.” It was a well-memorized response, one that her former mistress often told her.

Fluffs glanced at the massive black structure in the distance. She wanted to visit that damp, lowly building again. She admired the unashamed utilitarianism of it. The whole building looked like one large dank corner, forgotten by the upper crust. Perhaps she could sneak into it and be forgotten by them, too.

Fluffs got up and rubbed loose sediment off of her shoulders. She shuffled her feet so that she was facing Bluish, who looked at her with calm confusion.

“I am going back into the Lodestone building,” Fluffs said, as if asking Bluish for permission to do so. She extended her left hand. “Do you wish to join me?”

“Huh? Oh!” Bluish grinned. “Oh, sure.” She stood on her lanky blue legs, ignoring Fluffs’s outstretched hand, and wrapped an arm around Fluffs’s shoulder. Fluffs gave a tiny yelp but didn’t move.

“We’ll have to walk the whole way back,” Fluffs told her.

“That’s okay. I don’t really mind this place. It’s kind of comforting.”

The said their goodbyes to the fellow Pearls, made promises to see a few of them again (especially now that they had the autonomy to do so), and walked down the yawn of the kindergarten, back towards gem civilization.

Fluffs was thinking about what Bluish had said. _Why would a kindergarten be comforting? It’s not to me. In order for something to be comforting to a gem, there has to be a sense of safety, or familiarity, right? Has Bluish been here before?_

“Bluish,” she asked, “have you been to this kindergarten before?”

“No…” Bluish trailed off. “But, I think that this place is interesting, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Fluffs looked at her friend, eyes gloomy. “Yeah.”

Bluish took her arms from Fluffs’s shoulders and folded them behind her own head in a nonchalant pose. “I mean, this is a place where, realistically, 83% of this planet’s population came from. Isn’t that interesting? They’re all from the same location: here!”

Bluish walked over to a nearby emergence hole and squinted into its empty canal. Fluffs pattered closely behind. There was nothing interesting in the hole, as far as she could see.

Bluish said, “I heard that Peridots can determine what type of gem each emergence hole belongs to, just by the shape and exit markings.” She leaned away from the hole.

“That makes sense,” Fluffs commented. “That’s what they’re made specifically for.”

“I want to learn that. I would like to be able to look at emergence holes and identify the gem type just by that.” From her chest gem, she emitted a little holographic version of herself looking into kindergarten holes. The low-polygon count of the projection made it look strangely adorable.

“I don’t know what I would like to do,” Fluffs said. Bluish’s hologram sputtered back into her gem. “The only thing that I know how to do is follow orders. The only things I like to do is pray and not be hurt.” She forced herself to laugh. Bouazzerite hurt her, and Pearls weren’t supposed to disapprove of what their mistresses or ex-mistresses did. It was a joke, please understand.

Suddenly, the irony of it hit her._ Why do I allow myself to get hurt in order to prevent myself from getting hurt? I guess that I do fear replacement, of course. _She was all too aware of what would happen if she were to do something too out of line.

It reminded her of something that an Emerald’s Pearl had told her a millennia ago: better to be battered than shattered. Fluffs acknowledged that she technically agreed with the sentiment, though sometimes she felt as though Bouazzerite was just teasing her with her anger. She often held that threat of death over her Pearl’s head: “I could order you to be shattered this instant; in fact, I think that I deserve a newer model by now,” and Fluffs always would beg her mistress to showcase her extraordinary mercifulness. She knew that Bouazzerite enjoyed her groveling.

That was something which Fluffs prided herself on: that she was so in tune with her mistress’s emotions that she could complete tasks without being directly commanded to.

She noticed that Bluish Pearl was making eye contact with her. Fluffs blinked, acknowledging the gesture. Bluish cleared her throat and Fluffs moved her gaze to the bridge of her friend’s nose.

“Well, you don’t have to be around_ her _anymore. We’re free to do whatever we want. Like, go to the Lodestone building.” Fluffs giggled at Bluish’s speech. She held Bluish’s thin fingers in her equally small hand.

“Let’s go,” Fluffs announced. Bluish let out an over-excited cheer, and the light green Pearl’s giggling turned into full-bodied laughter.


	12. Chapter 12

Back in the dingy warp room. This time, Fluffs had the pleasure of noticing damp stains on the walls that curved around her and her friend. The Pearls quickly walked off of the warp pad and onto a dry part of cement.

“Why is it so moist in here?” Bluish asked with clear disgust. Fluffs shrugged. She honestly couldn’t come up with a possible answer. Refuse incineration plants were out of her area of familiarity, never mind expertise. The state of this facility was interesting, though. _Why does it look the way it does? Is it because of practicality or apathy?_

Bluish turned around and looked at the slick white walls of the room. They were unadorned, save for streaks of a stars-know-what brownish-grey substance.”Ugh,” she gasped. “This place is ugly.” Fluffs shrieked with shocked laughter and shushed her friend. She wanted to verbally reprimand her, but her mouth moved slower than her body..

“I’m sorry,” Bluish blurted. She pulled the collar of her coat over her face. “That was an inappropriate thing to say.” Fluffs’s mouth could move, again. So could the dark metal door opposite them, too. The Pearls resumed the appearance of silent creatures once they heard the mechanism start.

Across from them entered a very bored-looking gem, about the Pearls’ height, with metallic grey skin and shoulder-length, wavy light-grey hair. Judging by her striped iron-black jumpsuit and full-brimmed hard hat, she was a laborer gem. Judging by the gemstone on top of her right midfoot, she was a Magnetite.

The Pearls gazed at the worker. The Magnetite walked onto the warp pad, her black eyes down, unaware of the other gems in the room. She balanced herself on the flat pad and looked up, preparing to enter warp space. She saw the slender figures huddled near the wall and almost jumped out of surprise.

Fluffs gave a quiet gasp and shuffled behind Bluish. _Remember to keep your back straight. Slouching is especially unsightly on Pearls.  
_  
“I-is someone visiting?” the Magnetite asked with uncertainty. The Pearls looked at each other, egging the other on with their eyes to speak first. Fluffs tried to communicate with her eyelids that she was very tired and didn’t feel like talking to any more strangers. Bluish tried to communicate with her eyebrows that she thought that Fluffs didn’t talk enough. Then Bluish rolled her eyes and the corners of Fluffs’s lips felt heavy.

“My Magnetite, nobody is visiting,” Bluish said, and saluted. Fluffs saw this and quickly saluted as well. “Unless we count,” the blue gem added.

Fluffs wondered if Bluish was mad at her for not speaking first. She decided to speak at the next appropriate opportunity to make up for this hypothetical misstep. She listened carefully for a phrase to respond to without appearing entitled to a conservation with a gem of higher rank.

The Magnetite said, “Were you ordered to be here, then?” The Pearls shook their heads.

“My Magnetite,” Fluffs started. She noticed that she was twisting her fingers in her anxiousness, so she pressed them flat against her skirt. “The Diamonds declared that all Pearls could choose their own role in society, so we are trying to learn more about various roles… which… to fill.” She looked over at Bluish Pearl, who gave her a slight nod, unnoticeable to the Magnetite, and Fluffs felt relieved.

“Huh.” The Magnetite rubbed her eyes and yawned, unfurling her iron-black tongue. She took her hands from her face and crossed her arms impatiently, looking up at the ceiling._ Oh, no; is she leaving? Then we’d have to go to another building. I don’t want to go to the MonoClinic, and the Scorzalite Center sounds uninteresting, quite frankly. What else is there? Schuetteite’s ruins?_

There was no flash of light. Fluffs’s eyes refocused on the gem standing on the warp pad. The Magnetite was looking back at them.

“My Magnetite,” Bluish clasped her hands in an innocent Pearl posture. “May we please have permission to observe your duties today? Just for a few hours, my Magnetite.”

The Magnetite put her hand on the yellow diamond collar on her chest. “Oh, okay. But you don’t have to beg.” She sighed, as if speaking was especially tiring for her.

“It’ll be like we aren’t even there, my Magnetite,” Fluffs said. The Pearls bowed their heads to hide the excited smiles creeping onto their faces, and elegantly stepped onto the warp pad next to the Magnetite. The area burst with cold light, and their feet left the ground as they ascended.

The Magnetite was floating opposite from the Pearls, who were floating side by side. Fluffs could not tell what emotion the working gem’s half-lidded eyes and clasped hands meant to convey. She looked bored, certainly, but also a little sad. _Resigned_, the Pearl realized.

The Magnetite’s lips parted. The Pearls were quickly rapt. They could not disappoint her. “I’m sorry; I’m just surprised that, out of all the gems in the universe, you’d want to be a Magnetite,” the Magnetite said. The Pearls nodded politely, unsure of what she wanted them to do.

The light suddenly disappeared. They stood in a small room with three cement walls and one wall composed of red sliding doors which appeared to be manually operated. The warp pad took up most of the floor.

Without thinking, the two Pearls stepped forward before the Magnetite and grasped two separate primitive door-opening mechanisms with their thin hands. They pulled them open with a grunt (_These are surprisingly heavy!_) and, panting, curtsied for the Magnetite to enter the now-open doorway.

The Magnetite looked between the two gems. “Wow!” she managed to gasp. “Thank you.” Behind the Magnetite’s back, the Pearls silently screamed with joy at each other.

Fluffs practically skipped behind the Magnetite, next to Bluish. She did not mind that her footsteps were out of sync with the other gems around her. She was too busy being happy at the fact that a gem had thanked her.

It felt so good to be thanked! It felt like a warm ray of sunlight washing over her, revitalizing her. If she had not been in a corridor that was not meant for dancing in, she would have twirled to herself out of sheer delight. She might right now. She was inside her mind, but not in a scary way. Her mind was gracious and simple and tinged a happy silver.

_Thank you, _the Magnetite’s gruff voice whispered again to her. _You’re welcome_, she thought back. She could not even hear the distant thoughts telling her that she did not deserve such a gift

The Magnetite stopped again at another door. This one had a gem-specific opening mechanism, so the Pearls stood behind their tour guide politely. Fluffs noticed that Bluish was looking at her smile. Fluffs smiled comically wide, which made Bluish giggle. When Bluish giggled, it sounded like a Microsommite’s brush furiously scrubbing a grubby floor tile. Fluffs wheezed at the thought.

The door clanked to life, and the Pearls quickly neutralized their facial expressions.

“Welcome, to my observation deck.” The Magnetite lifted her arms theatrically, but there was absolutely no hint of enthusiasm in her voice. The Pearls shuffled in, sticking close to each other. The door closed behind them with a bang, startling Fluffs. _That was the only way into this room. No escape, now. What am I thinking? It’s okay. _She took a shaky breath and tried not to think about what were to happen if the Magnetite were to suddenly attack them.

The room was a grey, just like seemingly everything else in the Lodestone building. Cement floor, cement walls, cement control panel. The only thing that wasn’t cement was a large glass panel covering all of the wall to the left of them, and some of the floor, too.

The Magnetite sat down on the plain dais pointed at the panel. She pulled a lever, clicked a few buttons on the control panel to the right of her seat, and entered her name into the records: Magnetite 1F8 Cut-9MA. The Pearls marveled at the outdated technology.

Fluffs looked up from the control panel and out of the glass panel. All she could see from this angle, against the far wall, were distant walls and a steel platform. Fluffs walked slowly to the panel, keeping out of arm’s reach from Magnetite 1F8 Cut-9MA in case she was doing something worthy of being punished for. From this angle, closer to the window, she could finally see what Magnetite 1F8 Cut-9MA was overseeing.

It was a cavernous room. It was probably two Bouazzerite’s offices wide and two Bouazzerite’s offices tall. The dark ceiling was crossed with pulleys and metal bars. The walls were brown, though they looked as though they had originally been a light grey. There was a large circular opening in the ceiling that had been closed by interlocking metal plates, and a Pearl-sized door on the opposite wall that lead to a platform. The whole area was illuminated by six lights that were each easily the size of a Topaz. Fluffs squinted, trying to determine what the conglomerate of brown and black obscuring the floor was.

_Garbage!_

The room was probably ⅓ of the way filled with waste and garbage. The rest of the room was filled with air (except for the equipment, which looked like it was metal). The detritus looked like the sediment deposits left behind by icebergs, but piled many Pearls high, and with grains the size of Rubies.

“Oh!” Fluffs got it, now. “You oversee refuse incineration. Right, my Magnetite?” _You spoke out of turn._

“Yuh,” the laborer grunted, not bothering to make eye contact. “Though, I don’t know if you Pearls would really want to fill my role. Besides the fact that you’re unqualified, it’s rather… unglamorous.”  
_  
Okay. _Fluffs walked back to the far wall to the right of the door. Bluish was looking out the panel, but her eyes were unfocused. Fluffs realized that she herself was frowning and relaxed the muscles on her face. She was feeling lightheaded, again. She looked out the window as well, at the brown expanse being shifted around by metal claws. She did not know why Magnetite 1F8 Cut-9MA’s comment had made her sad. What she said was true. She did not have the proper knowledge. Pearls are made to look dainty and pretty, anyway. That was how Pearls are, and this is how Pearls are treated. It was not as though she even wanted to be a Magnetite. She just wanted to see what happened inside this vacuous facility.

_I’m a bad gem,_ she concluded, and she knew that she was over-exaggerating, but that just made her feel worse about herself.

Fluffs cursed her irrational emotions. They made her feel so weak, and they made no sense.

_Why do I feel emotions, anyway? What purpose do they serve?_

Fluffs pressed her right fingers against the palm of her left hand.

_I wish that I were a robonoid, or a hologram. Something without feelings. That would be nice; I would be flawless._


	13. Happy New Year

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year! A new chapter will be uploaded tomorrow. Until then, enjoy this picture of Emerald Facet 8 Cut 7TL and her (now former) Pearl celebrating this event.


	14. Chapter 14

It was getting almost unbearably boring in the observation deck. Fluffs was beginning to regret her decision to ask to follow the Magnetite. There were only so many hours where one could watch garbage being shifted around. _At least it will be set alight later,_ she thought. _Combustion reactions are always interesting. _

Next to her, Bluish looked bored to near tears. Fluffs could tell by the way that she pushed her lower eyelids up and subtly nodded her head back and forth. Fluffs wondered how Bluish could withstand long periods of inaction with her formal mistress (not that she was questioning Bluish’s efficiency). Part of a Pearl’s species description is that they do not mind waiting patiently for their owners. Then again, Fluffs remembered that she usually filled her inactive periods with prayer or by rotating objects in her mind’s eye. Rotating objects was fun. She enjoyed looking at all the scuffs that objects accumulate over extended use, and finding where parts fused together, trying to see if they were held to each other by adhesives, or friction, or wielding. She looked in her mind for an item to focus on.

_Oh, stars. _She remembered that she had taken out every object from her gem. It was as empty as the Magnetite’s vat was going to be after the next incineration cycle. She had nothing to rotate.

She noticed that she was frowning slightly, and relaxed the muscles on her face. She relaxed the muscles in her shoulders. She straightened her chin.

She could imagine something. She hadn’t been ordered to, but in the past day she hadn’t been ordered to do anything. Seeing as she had wandered the Facet on her own, without a mistress or an order to follow, she could probably imagine on her own, too.

_Oh, wait, _she realized. _I have imagined on my own before. I imagined in the kindergarten. Why am I so hesitant to imagine, now? _She felt her eyes twist towards the seated figure in front of her. _Ah. I am in the presence of a gem of higher rank._

Fluffs was no longer feeling lightheaded, and the weight of self-hatred on her chest had lessened. It was still there, though. This was an event which occurred fairly often; she would be overburdened with a negative emotion, and it would be as though she would float away in response, as though she were flying high in the stratosphere of her personal atmosphere, numb around the edges, and far away. She could see thunderstorms down below her, but she would not feel the rain they produced. That’s how it felt, sometimes; as though she were watching herself have emotional reactions from a distance.

_Okay. There are too many clouds in my head now. _She felt them piling up around her gem. She needed proper ventilation.

Her hand was shaking slightly. She held it behind her back. Her chest felt cold. She swallowed.

“My Magnetite,” the Pearl called. Magnetite 1F8 Cut-9MA turned around. Her wavy hair was pushed against her metallic cheek by the motion.

“Huh?”

“Can I- I mean, um, my Magnetite, may I please be allowed to go outside to pray? I will bless your incineration procedure,” she lied. Her body throbbed with nervous energy.

Magnetite 1F8 Cut-9MA returned to her posture facing the glass panel wall. Her eyes were glazed over in a productive trance. “Oh,” she said. “I didn’t know that you Pearls could pray. Go ahead.”

Fluffs pivoted. She felt the skin of the ball of her foot drag against the rough concrete floor. _At least there are not any clouds in between my feet and the floor._

Out in the hallway. The door was closed. The walls stretching around her were grey and metallic, like the Magnetite’s skin. The air smelled like wet stone. It felt cold, too.

She kneeled down on the floor, with all its dirt from the feet of passerby stuck to it, and took a moment to be appreciative of the functionality of the acceleration receptors of her knees._ I have a good model form, _she thought. She got inspiration for her prayer and assumed the position.

She had no idol to pray to, which made her sad. She decided to tilt her head towards (where she presumed to be) the sun. It was the best she could do with what she had.

_My Sun Goddess,_

_I thank You for the rationality which You have gifted me, with which I may recognize the greatness of Your works. I thank You for shining Your Contrivance onto the Diamonds, thereby granting them the knowledge with which to make a Pearl’s form. _

_I ask You to grant me a mere photon of Your Rationionality. Even such a small gift will be enlightening. In return for Your generosity, I will…_

What was a good gift for such an unequalled being? She scrambled through the empty rooms of her mind in search of an adequate reward. She owned nothing, and not until recently including herself. She thought about the prayers she had heard and read over the years...

A half-formed thought drifted into her consciousness. She grabbed onto it and frantically pulled it into the direct sunlight of her headspace. She couldn’t keep the Sun Goddess waiting. 

_I will pray to you four times daily for the next two days. Praise the Sun Goddess. Bless Yellow Diamond and all the gems in her court. Transmission ended._

Fluffs let the palms of her hands glide over each other. She inspected the grout where the wall and floor met. It was a darker gray than the wall –_ Unsightly_ – and it was uneven and bumpy. The mounds on its granular surface were barely a centimeter high at most, but to a small being like a Parkerite it would no doubt require at least a slight upward swivel of the hip joint to travel over. Again, Emerald Facet 8 Cut 7TL’s (former) Pearl popped into Fluff’s mind.

She remembered being on the Warship. The Emerald’s Pearl had been spilling fact upon astronomical fact from her head into Fluff’s ear. Frantically, as if her form would explode into gas if she kept all of her knowledge inside of her. She was rambling excitedly about white dwarf stars, and how she overheard geochronologists hypothesizing the evolution of mineraloid “organics” on the surfaces of such stars, and then how a whole debate got started in one of the Moon Memorial Spires about whether such a hypothetical species would even be classified as an organic or not, etc, etc. Fluffs has trouble keeping up with the conversation. Really, all that she remembered most was the remark that mounds millimeters high would be like mountains to whatever organisms lived on a dwarf star.

Fluffs considered the grout. She didn’t know where that transport chain of thought had been taking her, and now she’d lost it.

_Vree… ksh!_

Fluffs jumped at the sound of metal sliding on metal behind her and turned her head. Over her shoulder, she saw Bluish Pearl tiptoe out of the Magnetite’s room, closing the door behind her. Fluffs squinted at her friend. She felt her heart rate quicken.

Bluish mouthed, “She stopped moving, so I left. Do you want to go?”

Fluffs gave her a very slight nod. She wondered if there were watchergems in the walls. Probably not. This was a Lodestone building, not a palace, after all.

Fluffs got up off her knees and the two walked out towards the warp room. They tugged open the heavy folding doors and stood on the glistening pad. Light filled the room, and they were back in the cylindrical room on the ground-level floor.

Fluffs turned to Bluish. She asked her, “Do you want to explore more of this building, or do you want to leave?”

Bluish shook her head once the word “explore” left the light green Pearl’s mouth.

“Okay,” Fluffs shrugged. She didn’t really want to stay any longer in this stinking building, either.


	15. Chapter 15

Fluffs and Bluish sat on a half-carved boulder outside of the Lodestone building. It was still night out, but the light from the moons was sufficient for navigating the barren wasteland they were in. Behind them, they heard the right-hand-gem Bismuth banging away at a misshapen pipe. Fluffs held Bluish’s hand so that the banging sounds were less frightening to her. Her fingers were on top of Bluish’s. That made her feel safer, to be in control of the hand-holding.

Bluish didn’t seem to mind the physical contact. She was looking at the blinking surveillance satellites that were moving linearly across the sky. Fluffs looked at her face. She looked at her large, grayish-blue eyes, and her neat navy hair. She thought about how they almost fused and felt embarrassed. 

Bluish turned to her friend. Fluffs was afraid, for a moment, that Bluish had somehow heard her thoughts.

“Fluffs, what do you want to do?” she asked, mid-yawn. “We could go to the Chert District. My Frohbergite went there once to give a speech to some Grattarolaites visiting from a few Facets over.” She twisted her foot around circularly.

Fluffs felt anxiety rise in her chest. “Is that in the Facet 3 city?” she asked. If it was, then her Bouazzerite might be there. The very thought filled her with icy dread.

“No,” Bluish shook her head. Fluffs shifted her hands so that her palms cupped two of the curves in the boulder’s surface. The stone was grainy and jagged in some parts. It was much colder than Bluish’s hand._ It’s probably a metamorphic rock, _she thought idly.

“The Chert District is a little East of the interfacet 8 warp pad, near the Fluid Inclusion Recreation Center,” Bluish elaborated. “You know, with the Artery sticking out of it?”

“Will it be hot there?” Fluffs asked, remembering her interaction with the Sapphire and Sagenite. Bluish tapped her foot. Behind them, the Bismuth had ceased her hammering.

“Uh, it’s usually hot there, but I think it’s ‘cause of all the glass from the buildings and the Artery. Maybe it’ll be cooler there because the sun isn’t shining right now,” Bluish spoke. Fluffs put her hand to her chin to communicate that she was thinking about Bluish’s suggestion.

“Or we could go someplace else, if you like,” Bluish added. Fluffs shook her head and slid off the boulder onto the ground. “I would like to go to the Chert District,” she said.

“Heeeyyy!” Bluish cheered. Fluffs got to her feet and they began to walk to their destination.

——————

It wasn’t until they could see the glossy yellow arches of the Facet 8 Artery that it occurred to Fluffs to ask this question:

“Bluish,” she started, resisting the instinctual urge to call her “my Bluish”, “what is in the Chert District? In terms of gem types and facilities, I mean.” She smiled and laughed nervously, hoping she hadn’t angered her friend with the burden of answering a question.

Bluish covered her face and sniffed some rhinorrhea back into her nose. The sudden change in temperature as she approached the Artery had made her nose run. Even though the moons were still shining, the difference in heat was nevertheless noticeable. It was stale and warm here. Like in the city, the light shining from the interiors of buildings made it almost look like daytime at ground level.

Bluish lowered her hand. “Umm,” she thought. “There are lots of crumbling Era 1 buildings, and, uh…” she rubbed her left eye. “My apologies, I haven’t been there in at least five hundred years.”

“That’s okay,” Fluffs reassured her. “We can rediscover it.” Bluish didn’t smile. _Maybe she didn’t like what I said. Maybe she doesn’t like me. Maybe she’ll leave and go back to the other Pearls. I’m such a bad gem. _Fluffs shook her head slightly and clenched her fist. _I’m being irrational._

They stalled near the Artery, or at least as near as they could get without causing their temperature detectors to release distress signals. Around them, there were some Sagenite and Agtes walking around. The two stood near the glowing glass tube, holding the mechanism in reverence as if it were a shrine dedicated to Yellow Diamond herself. The yellow light emanating from the vessel was pleasing to the eyes. It illuminated all the cracks in the cement tiling they were standing on.

Fluff’s shoulders were sweating. Bluish scratched her glistening neck uncomfortably.

“Well, it is a magnificent structure,” Fluffs said earnestly. It was so tall, and wise, stretching from the planet’s core to the edge of the troposphere, scraping the layer of clouds above it. How many Bismuths did it take to build it?

“Bah, it’s mundane.” Fluffs whipped around as she heard the voice. Her eyes scanned the area and rested on a Clinochlore making direct eye contact with her.

Fluffs realized that she was frowning involuntarily, and did her best to neutralize her facial expression. Her breath felt as though it were getting caught in her throat. Her eyes felt as though they were slipping past the borders of her eyelids. She tried not to scream.

The Clinochlore tilted her head quizzically. Her hair looked like a blackish-green sphere balanced on the top of her head. The rapid beating in Fluff’s chest turned into a pool of embarrassment when she saw the Clinochlore turn and begin to speak to a sequined Thortveitite in a bodysuit, who was standing next to her.

“I think I startled that Pearl,” she heard the commander laughed to her glittering friend. Now it was the Thortveitite’s turn to make direct eye contact with the Pearl. Fluffs bit her lip and saluted. It’s already embarrassing enough to overreact, now you have to stare at me? Why don’t you get your own Pearl, you… 

“What are you two pretty Pearls doing around here?” the Thortveitite asked with a lopsided grin, taking a step forward. Fluffs lowered her arms. She was reminded of the Sagenite she had met at this same location earlier. Her mind quickly formed a connection between the two events. I hate this place, she thought.

Bluish turned around at the sound of the words “Pearls”. She was visibly struggling to keep a friendly smile on her face. Fluffs felt her friend’s fingers slip into her palm. She grasped them firmly behind her back. The Clinochlore laughed again.

“You two are acting like we caught you violating empirical code,” she smiled and her eyes widened. Her scleras shone uncannily in the relative darkness.

Fluffs was unable to suppress a quiet whimper of fear. Hearing herself, she felt a rush of adrenaline and dug her right thumb nail against the tip of her right middle finger as punishment.

The two gems seemed to find this hilarious. They guffawed with their hands held near their mouths, haughtily. Fluffs could not control her breathing. At least her face remained neutral. Such a reaction was second nature.

The Clinochlore took a step before her. She was tall, thin, angular…

Fluffs found herself crouched on the ground with her hands covering her head. He throat hurt. She remembered hearing a loud sound. She was trembling. The ground looked fuzzy.

“Oh, oh!” she heard a muffled gem exclaim. “Did I break her?”

“Uh, my apologies, my Clinochlore! my Thortveitite!”

“I don’t think you did anything wrong. I think you just frightened her.”

Through the fog, she felt two thin hands gently touching her shoulders. She slouched out of the way. She felt as though her consciousness was sliding away from her skin. Her head felt full of clouds. She wanted to bang her head against the ground, but just pressed her palm against her forehead instead. She tried to feel the bumps of the concrete floor beneath her feet, but her toes felt strangely numb.

Fluffs leaned back and sat down. She covered her eyes because she didn’t want the gems around her to see her express such a disgustingly intense emotion.

“I’m so tired,” she sobbed. “I just want to rest.”

The Clinochlore tapped the light green gem’s shoulder. “Come now,” she said curtly. “Get up.” Fluffs squirmed away from her hand.

“Excuse me, Clinochlore,” she heard the Thortveitite say. “May I…?”

The Thortveitite crouched down to stand at eye level with the Pearl. Her round, grayish-green face took up most of Fluffs’s vision.

“There’s just been a misunderstanding,” Thortveitite said simply. Fluffs blinked against the gem’s hot breath blowing onto her face. “You misinterpreted the situation, which is understandable for a gem such as you. I mean, you’re not a Thorite, after all, none of us are.” The Thortveitite laughed briefly. Then, her face became hard and serious, again.

“I will explain this to you simply: You are not in danger.”

The Thortveitite waited until Fluffs forced herself to make eye contact with her. Satisfied, the engineer stood up, but continued to stare at Fluffs, who did not smile. Suddenly, the Thortveitite tensed up and made a harsh frown.

“Okay,” she spat. “Wallow in your fear. _I _need to manufacture a spacecraft fabric covering.” The two gems turned on their heels and left.

Once they were out of earshot, Bluish sat down on the warm ground next to Fluffs.

“I thought they were going to hurt us,” Fluffs blubbered. _Surely Bluish had assumed the same thing, right?  
_  
“They were laughing, though. Laughter is used to communicate frivolity,” Bluish sighed. Fluffs felt her chest heave as she began to cry harder. It sounded extremely selfish of her, but she wanted nothing more at that moment than to be comforted.

_I get it,_ she thought. _I’m a stupid gem. I can’t perceive things correctly._

Bluish raised her arm to gently touch Fluff’s back, but thought better of it. Instead, she said: “Not every gem is like Bouazzerite. And I know that, because _I _don’t want to hurt you.”

Fluffs glared at the ground. She inhaled sharply, causing some of her tears to be sucked up into her nose.

_You kind of unintentionally_ are_, though._


	16. Chapter 16

Bluish led Fluffs around the square, in between the tall glass buildings and across the cement. She was looking for a good place for her friend to rest, preferably a nice corner tucked out of sight, where the light green gem could crumple and slowly regain her strength.

They had entered the Chert District by now. It was obvious once they passed the obsidian-black Era 1 archways which celebrated the entrance to the zone. They had entered the lowest-class gateway that they could fit into, not wanting to blemish any elite’s view of the city with the visual reminder of their existence. Subsequently, the land beyond the threshold of that pitch-dark entrance was industrial, not-well-maintained, and strangely bare beyond all of the particles and smudges of dirt gleaming on all its surfaces. It was like when one takes away the exterior of an Era 1 machine refitted with the countenance of an Era 2 machine, only to see behind it the overly busy and primitive cogs and wheels powering it.

Bluish ducked under some pipes, stringing her friend along by the arm. Despite the fellow Pearl’s reassurances, Fluffs could not help flitting her eyes around her surroundings, looking for any and all vaguely thin, tall gems. The air seemed electric regardless of how well-insulated the arterioles criss-crossing over her head were. Bluish did not seem to be reacting to the environment the same way. Fluffs bit the insides of her cheeks; blinking away tears, she concluded that her apparent miscalculation of the conductivity in the air was most likely due to the unusually large stress she was under. Self-criticizing thoughts filled her mind and she imagined her legs giving way and her jaw hitting the floor tiles below them.

_What a dramatic thought! Stars, I really am tired._

“Hey, here’s a nice spot,” Bluish said. Fluffs blinked and looked to where Bluish was pointing. It was the space between the exterior of a building and a short staircase leading into it. In the corner were two solid white bricks of insentient diamantane crystals stacked on top of each other. Fluffs took the hint and laid horizontally on top of the slabs of material - like she’d seen her Bouazzerite do during her former mistress’s rare days of voluntary relaxation.

“I feel like an elite, lying here,” Fluffs said, pulling back her cheeks to make it look as though she were smiling. She looked up at the tall gray buildings crowding around her. She could only see small veins of sky breaking through the district’s monochrome dreariness. Some condensation dripping from an arteriole twisting overhead hit her nose, so she scrunched up her face and turned to her side. From that position, she could see through the alleyway and into the street. Gems were beginning to exit their buildings and take advantage of the approaching sunlight.

Fluffs peered over at her friend, who was sitting on the floor with her legs apart. She was watching a Microsommite. The small gem saw this, and turned to them.

“There’s a parade today,” she whispered.

Bluish nodded unsuredly.

“Thank you?” she asked more than said.

Fluffs nodded as well, not wanting to be rude, and closed her eyes. The clouds in her head became less tempestuous when she was able to block out one of her senses.

“I assume that’s why you’re here,” the tiny voice continued. Her voice rang in Fluff’s ear like a loose ball bearing.

“No, not really, my Microsommite. We aren’t really doing anything.” Fluffs could hear the dissatisfied frown in Bluish’s voice. “We went to the Lodestone building, but that was mega boring. We’re trying to figure out what to do, I guess. We aren’t servants anymore, right? What are we supposed to do?”

“I don’t know,” the Microsommite said bluntly. She continued scrubbing the floor.

“Well; it was more of a rhetorical question, I guess, my Microsommite.” The Microsommite continued to scrub. Bluish continued to ramble. “The world is pretty big. It’s kind of scary-big.” Fluffs heard Bluish’s mesh scrape against the floor. She was presumably moving into a more comfortable position.

“Excuse me, Pearl? Um, I… y-you don’t need to call me ‘my Microsommite’.” The cleaner was barely audible. “I-I think I may rank lower than you,” she gave a nervous laugh.

“Huh? I don’t get it…”

Fluffs felt as though her body was moving, though her bedding was firm. Her chest shuddered every once in a while, and her foot twitched. She felt as though she were drifting away.

——————

Fluffs was inside an office. After a momentary analysis, Fluffs concluded that it belonged in the Equatorial Moon Memorial, near one of the entrances for common gems. The walls were black, the furnishings were black. Past an open door, she saw a black hallway leading into more black rooms. Fluffs looked around, growing anxious. _Where am I? _She could see a window with no glass in it. Past the window, there was only a landscape of red fire melding into a boiling orange sky.

She became aware of a Flint standing next to her. She shrieked despite herself. She was starting to grow tired at all the fear she was experiencing. It was wearing down on her.

The Flint, though, was gray as cement and imposing as a high-ranking Topaz. Her face was obscured by billowing black clouds, yet her Pink court uniform remained highly visible.

“This is not a drill! The building’s on fire!” the Flint bellowed. Fluffs gasped. She hoped that the Flint would recognize her act of fear and quiet her voice. She didn’t.

“Evacuate immediately!” the Flint ordered. “Go, go, go!”

She felt something grab her hand. “Bluish!” she exclaimed. “You’re here! Where are we?”

Bluish wordlessly pulled Fluffs towards the door. “Wait!” Fluffs howled. _Why won’t she answer me?_

A roaring filled her ears as they rushed past the clusters of flames. Fluffs caught sight of the smoke crowding near the ceiling a moment before the particulates began to irritate her eyes.

They ran out through a door and onto a smooth upward slope. Her legs aching, Fluffs let herself down onto the ground. She couldn’t identify its material, as it was transparent, making the singular floor that she had been in appear to float in the sky. Past her legs, all she could see was an endless inferno. _This is such a confusing location. This doesn’t look like the Moon Memorial at all!_

The Flint was standing next to her. “Please, my Flint,” Fluffs begged, “where’s Frohbergite? Where’s Moss Jasper?” She remembered who she was supposed to be concerned about. She didn’t want to be shattered for disloyalty. “Where’s Bouazzerite?” she forced out.

“They’re still inside.” The Flint was blunt.

——————

“Ah!” Fluffs yelped. She jerked awake, and yelled again when she accidentally hit her toe on a stairwell railing.

Fluffs sat up and curled around her foot. Adrenaline was still coursing through her body. Where am I? Where did the flames go?

She noticed that Bluish was staring at her. She felt a sinking sensation in her abdomen.

“Wha-? Did I - did I do something wrong?” Fluffs stammered.

“No! I was just curious because you were emitting something.” Bluish gestured to Fluffs’s gem. Fluffs blushes and reached behind her back to touch her gem.

“What was it?” she asked.

“It looked like a simulation. There was a burning building? I saw myself in it!”

Bluish frowned and inches closer to her friend. “Are you still tired?” she asked. Fluffs shook her head. She felt a little more energized, now. The sunlight beaming down from above the buildings helped as well.

“Microsommite was talking about the parade that’s happening. It’s some sort of secular jubilee that they do every tear in this district.” Bluish added helpfully.

“Should we go see it?” Fluffs asked groggily - she felt as though her system was starting up from a dissipation. “I mean, we’re not a part of the district or anything -“

“Nah. Let’s go see it.” Bluish looked into Fluffs eyes briefly, and quickly averted her gaze.

The two slithered down the narrow alleyways like a pair of automated brachial defense systems.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the long wait. If you’re curious, the month-long absence in writing can be attributed to a temporary worsening of clinical depression.¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ Regardless, I’d like to thank everyone reading this for your continued patience. I hope that you enjoy this latest chapter. :)

The parade was scheduled to pass through one of the bigger walkways. The Microsommite had told Bluish that. The specific walkway was quickly found by the two Pearls. There were many gems of different mineral species standing on the periphery of the walkway, near the rectangular buildings that made up the Chert district. Such proximity to so many watching eyes made Fluffs nervous, however. She chose to stay pressed against the walls of an alleyway, mostly out of sight. Bluish stood in front of her, arms crossed, looking out into the walkway in search of the upcoming procession. Fluffs could see a sliver of the walkway from her position. That was enough for her.

“Do you see anybody?” she asked Bluish. Bluish shook her head.

“I’ve never seen a parade so up close,” Fluffs shuddered. “Only from balconies. Do you think that it will be loud?”

“Mm-hmm,” Bluish affirmed. Fluffs grit her teeth.

“Oh!” Bluish turned around and lightly tapped Fluff’s shoulder. Fluffs slid down into a crouch.

“Sorry,” Bluish frowned. “Uh, the parade’s coming, though! Do you hear the chanting?”

Fluffs could indeed hear a distant chanting. Judging by the slow pace of parades she had viewed before, the actual procession was probably about five minutes away. She got up to her feet and peered over Bluish’s thin shoulders. Her friend’s mesh coat scraped lightly against her chin. She saw a very pretty Hydrokenoralstonite from across the way make eye contact with her. Fluffs blushed and quickly ducked back behind Bluish’s back.

_Wow, what a beautiful gem._ She smiled to herself, and thought about what she would look like wearing her smooth pyramidal dress. She tapped her fingers against the wall she was leaning against. _I’d look silly._

The parade came, eventually. Its arrival was signaled by a perfect, large Heliodor carrying the flag of the new, era 3 Empire.

What came first was the floats of the Diamonds. Big-chested Bodeachats carried the glimmering, gilded platforms on their large, strong blue hands. They marched in sync with one another, like a unit of Quartzes. Wearing nothing but the standard Yellow Diamond uniform, they were difficult to spot unless one was looking for them. They were mere specks of blue against the blinding luminescence of the floats.

The platforms which they were carrying were incredible in their splendor. The first to arrive was White Diamond’s likeness, a large, imposing structure made out of solid crystal. It was about as tall as a three-story building, and held up with the help of bulbous golden drones emitting impulse gravity beams.

The White Diamond structure was beautiful and all (in fact, it was almost frightening in terms of its stature and height) and its appearance was met with applause and salutes, but Fluffs was looking forward to seeing another display. It came directly behind White Diamond’s platform.

The walkway was filled with rapturous applause. Fluffs subconsciously moved closer to the road to get a better view, and she saw it; a magnificent, awesome, shining statue of pure yellow resin! Oh, it was beautiful, the way the sun shone off of its surface, the sharp angles that made up her face, the poised intelligence conveyed through her stance. Fluffs felt such a wave of admiration and pride that she began to tear up. She slapped her palms together eagerly and saluted Yellow Diamond’s statue, joining in with the hundreds of other gems doing the same. She was once aware that she was in the view of hundreds of gems. _There is no need to worry,_ she told herself. _I am saluting Yellow Diamond. It’s all right._

_I wish that I had been Yellow Diamond’s Pearl, _she thought, not taking her watery eyes off of the gleaming golden statue._ I’d be happy to serve her, even after my manumission. Oh, to be in the presence of such a loyal and hardworking gem._ She really admired her immaculate matriarch.

As Yellow Diamond’s float disappeared behind the buildings, Blue Diamond’s glittering ice sculpture followed. It was kept cold by Aquamarines flying around next to it, and glistened in the sunlight in a way which at certain angles hurt the eyes of its viewers. The audience applauded politely. Fluffs leaned against the wall to collect herself after witnessing Yellow Diamond’s artistic representation. She wiped the tears from her eyes, smearing her forearm with water. When she blinked her eyes open again she saw Bluish grinning and swaying from side to side.

Next was the Stevensite’s float. That was her name, right? The replacement of Pink Diamond, in any case. Bluish urged Fluffs to peek over the corner to get a better view of the float. Fluffs thought about all the watching eyes and politely declined. 

She saw a glimpse of the new leader’s float. It was soft and green and matte with frost. It looked a little disgusting in its suppleness. The shapes were very round and the statue of the Stevensite (if that was truly her name) was small, only around two or three times Fluff’s height. The base of the float was decorated with lightly bristled tubes and scattered clusters of moist tissue. It made Fluffs feel slightly repulsed and unsettled. She kept those sensations to herself. She saluted.

Once the floats of the Diamonds were out of sight and the rows of marching Garnets and Emeralds followed, the crowd resumed its murmuring over the celebratory music. Fluffs mulled over the depiction of the new Pink Diamond. She herself had been created a few millennia after the leader’s supposed Shattering. Her entire existence, up until this point, had been _sans_ Pink Diamond. Something about this change in leadership made Fluffs nervous. This was unprecedented. She had no knowledge of which protocol to follow, if the protocol had at all changed. She wondered if the name of the Tribrilliant Square would change, and felt a twinge of sorrow at the prospect of a familiar landmark becoming unfamiliar.

The incessant vibrations from the street were beginning to claw against her forehead. It made her want to bang her head against the wall. Instead, she began to sway side to side. Bluish was doing the same, and saw her friend and smiled.

“What did you think of the Stevensite’s float?” Fluffs asked timidly.

“It was very _intricate_,” Bluish mused. “Did you see what material it was?”

“No. Well, I saw it. But I think it was some exotic material. From off-planet,” Fluffs breathed. It was hard to talk when she was surrounded by such noise.

“Oh.”

“It was made of organic material,” a thin voice wavered near them. Fluffs looked around, frightened. Her eyes landed on a Cream Pearl making direct eye contact with her. She was standing in the back of the crowd, close to the other two Pearls. She was wearing loose-fitting straps of cloth and she had stiff hair over her eyes like a visor. Fluffs recognized her from the Pearl “jubilee” at the kindergarten earlier.

“I saw them import it,” she continued. “They had to get it past Witherite’s ship. Apparently Steven Universe had requested the thing to be made out of organics.”

“Ew,” Bluish murmured under her breath.

Fluffs walked backwards down the alleyway. She had had enough of the loud music and social obligations. The fear of doing something which others may view as defective (after all, if another gem accused you of being defective, you almost certainly were found to be so) was weighing heavily on her, and she wanted some relief. She wanted to pray to the Sun Goddess.

She wondered if it was rude to pray while a parade was passing by. She figured that prayers would be welcomed at any time. That seemed the most logical.

A few minutes later, Fluffs was pulled from her supplicant position by a strange collection of sounds screeching from the walkway. It was certainly from the parade, but it did not seem custom. She kept her back turned to the street but cupped her hands together, closing her ceremonial communication channel to the Goddess.

She struggled to make out the words. It was difficult to discern through all the background noise. The chants felt as though they were scraping against her ears. She tapped her heel against the ground to try and quell the cold feeling in her chest.

“No nationalization… without indemnification!”

_What the Fucite does that mean?_

She finally turned her head around to look at the marchers. They were aristocrats, obviously, however they should have been watching the marchers, not marching themselves. _They must have been granted permission to commission a float_, Fluffs realized.

“What are they saying?” she heard Bluish ask the Cream Pearl.

Fluffs checked her internal dictionary for “nationalization” and “indemnification”, but drew up a blank. The Cream Pearl must have done the same, because she did not respond.

Well, it did not matter. It was not in a Pearl's place to ask questions.


	18. Chapter 18

It was common for aristocratic gems to participate in certain parts of parades. For instance, Hessonites and Demantoids marched before their Agates and their Agate’s Quartzes. Aquamarines and Heliodors decorated the ensemble like sentient ornaments. Larimars showed off their ice sculptures. Clinochlores demonstrated their newest uniform designs. Such priceless gems participating in other parts of the parade was what was unusual. First, there was the crowd of aristocrats and their incomprehensible chant. Then, there was a small float, towards the end of the parade and after the last Quartzes. There was a Gray Zircon with a gem placement Fluffs could not locate, an Emerald with a forehead gem, a barely-visible Micah, an iridescent Chalcopyrite with a hand gem, and a Yellow Sapphire with her gem placed on her left bicep.

Fluffs’s eyes widened and she edged closer to the walkway. _The Yellow Sapphire I saw earlier! Where are her Rubies? Why is she here? I hope that she isn’t doing anything non-conventional. _Despite herself, she felt a mixture of fear and happiness.

There was writing on their peculiar float. The words were easily understood. It said, “Board for the Legalization of Recreational Inter-gem Fusion”.

“Oof!” Fluffs wheezed. She hid herself in the alleyway and scrunched her eyes closed. _They were risking their gems for something like that! How embarrassing! _She did not want to think about the social backlash they would face for their decision. She felt too bad for them.

She heard some murmurs coming from the crowd. Was she imagining their disapproval, or was that her anxiousness projecting?

_That Sapphire. She said that she did not have an interest in recreational fusion. So, why was she advocating for such a thing? She was a very wise and intuitive gem. She did say that she saw such things being legalized in the future. Maybe she saw herself being a part of that future, and acted accordingly._

“You okay?” Bluish was standing over her. Fluffs nodded and pointed with her hand at the passing float.

“I’m worried for them,” Fluffs half-laughed. _A Pearl, worried for such precious gems! _Bluish leaned against the wall of the alleyway and considered the float.

“Y’know,” she said, “I heard rumors from my, uh, former Frohbergite that this new Steven Universe was advocating for cross-gem fusion to be legalized.” She whispered the words “cross-gem,” as if she were uttering a cursed verse.

“Yeah, Era 3’s bringing strange things in with it,” Cream Pearl remarked.

“I saw that Yellow Sapphire earlier,” Fluffs whispered. “She told me where the Pearl ‘jubilee’ in the Kindergarten was.”

Cream Pearl tensed. Uh oh, Fluffs thought._ I said something wrong. _The beige gem huffed.

“I hope that my dear Witherite isn’t here,” she muttered. “Don’t tell her I said that,” she added with a wry half-smile. “It’s just, she is very fond of parades. Oh, stars, she’ll order me to walk next to her,” she groaned and looked up at the sky. Her fingers rubbed the elastic outlines of her eyes.

Bluish glanced at her green friend. “Fluffs is good at making escape plans,” she murmured. Fluffs body felt cold again. She had never told Bluish that explicitly. She looked up at her friend. What she had said was true, but it felt offensive and borderline violating with its accuracy.

“Don’t say that!” she breathed. The atmosphere was struggling to enter her larynx, again. Pearls were not supposed to escape! That was nearly treason. She tapped her finger tips against her forehead, trying to calm herself down.

“Oh, it was a compliment.” Bluish said. Cream Pearl chuckled softly. Fluffs glanced at her shadowed face. She wondered how Cream Pearl’s mesh sashes felt against her skin, and if she liked the feel of them. She became aware of her mesh gloves again, and desired to tear them off, again.

Cream Pearl said something, but the clouds in Fluffs’s head were blocking her own ears. They were getting close to her eyes as well, making her peripheral vision turn fuzzy. The dark towers standing over their slim figures began to feel a little threatening. Fluffs could see too little sky. She breathed in through the gaps in her teeth.

“Let’s explore this colony,” she suggested. Bluish Pearl and Cream Pearl were laughing at something. They did not respond to her words. Fluffs held her hands and waited patiently for their conversation to end. 

“Excuse me,” she said, trying to get the words out of her mouth a little more forcefully. It reminded her of when she tugged to open the manual doors in the Lodestone building. Fluffs smiled slightly at the memory. She tried to feel the sediment of the concrete floor below her through her feet. She tried to get rid of the clouds as much as she could. There appeared to be some in her pulmonary cavity.

“Hey!”

The two Pearls were immediately rapt.

“Sorry,” Fluffs murmured. “But, you didn’t hear me.” Bluish and Cream Pearl smiled in a way that Fluffs hoped was forgiving and benevolent. Fluffs waited a moment, but the two other Pearls did not speak. They just looked at her. Fluffs yelped internally. 

_Augh! All these gems, all these buildings, all these windows! I have to get out of here!_

“Let’s go to a far-away facet.” Fluffs gave an uncharacteristic smile. The adrenaline shooting through her circuits was pushing her eyelids wide and her lips taut. “Let’s go to Facet 13, or maybe Facet 17, if you want. We could go to an ultrapure city, or maybe gaze at the mountains near the Scalenohedron?” She ended her suggestions with the increase in pitch that posed a question. She did not want her fellow Pearls to think that she was being assertive.

Cream Pearl touched her chin. “Not to be acicular, dear, but what in Yellow Diamond’s name is the Scalenohedron?”

Fluffs took notice of the shift in tones between the two clauses of Cream Pearl’s sentence. Such a shift was characteristic of a gem when they began to put on a performance, or where quoting another gem. Therefore, Fluffs concluded that Cream Pearl was attempting to be humorous, and not malicious, with her actually-acicular speech. Her deduction was supported by the sound of Bluish blowing air out of her nose, betraying a restrained laugh.

“Hello?” Cream Pearl said.

“Oh! Uh, it’s a,” Fluffs interrupted her own speech with an insecure giggle. Her throat closed. Bouazzerite had ordered her not to reveal certain information intimated to her regarding the Scalenohedron. Fluffs looked sadly at the floor.

“Mountains,” she managed to say.

“I want to go to Facet 13,” Cream Pearl said sharply. She placed her hands on her barely-apparelled hips.

“Yeah!” Bluish cheered. She looked gently at Fluffs. “Is that alright with you?”

“Yes,” she said. “I’m fine with anything.”

“Okay,” Cream Pearl hemmed. “Let’s find a warp pad!”

——————

The Scalenohedron, a massive orange structure a mile wide and built into the Sulfosalt Mountains behind it, was visible from the Facet 13 warp pad. Fluffs kept her mouth obediently shut. It was just a building, after all.

The sea was also visible from the warp pad, which was wet with condensation against their feet. The Pearls walked through the barren grey land and the metallic stench of geosomes to the coast. They kept about a hundred feet from the liquid ammonia to avoid any unintentional dissipation.

The sea was vast, stretching from the Sulfosalt Mountains to the west to the horizon in the east. It was a cold and tempestuous sea. The slick mountains surrounding it didn’t help calm the wind whipping around the Pearl’s heads. They held each other’s hands to steady themselves.

“I didn’t imagine it to be so brown,” Bluish said, referring to the body of ammonia before them. Fluffs nodded.

“I thought it would be more blue,” she added, recalling what Seafoam Pearl said in the Kindergarten. “But, this is beautiful, too.” She particularly liked how the chunks of ice, swirled up from the seafloor by the seething waves, reflected the dark green color of the sky.

“I heard,” Fluffs began. “I heard, from my former Bouazzerite, that thousands of years ago, when they were colonizing this planet–” she glanced at the Pearls, who nodded at her, “–that they lit all the lakes and seas on fire. It all came back, obviously, but it destroyed all the organics hiding in there.”

They listened to the waves crash over each other. The sheets of ice scraped against each other and melted into the sea. Besides Fluffs, Cream Pearl gasped.

“Do you think we’ll get to see the rain?” She asked. The Pearls studied the metallic grey clouds curiously.

“I don’t know,” Bluish Pearl scoffed jokingly. “I’m not a Thorite.” Fluffs shook her hands back and forth.

“Thorites don’t specialize in meteorology!” She laughed. Bluish laughed and kicked her legs. Cream Pearl kept studying the churning clouds.

“Do you feel better, Fluffs?” Bluish asked over the wind. Fluffs blinked, partially because of the flecks of seafoam blown into her eyes, and partially out of surprise at such a personal question being asked.

She felt pellets of precipitation hit her skin. The wind roared and the rain picked small dents into the smooth coast. Before Fluffs could answer her question, thunder roared and lightning struck the Scalenohedron, coursed down its length to the ammonia, arched across the surface of the bay and disappeared into the broadening sea.

The Pearls nearly jumped out of their gems. Fluffs screamed. Bluish shrieked. Cream Pearl let out an irritated shout.

“Aaiiieeee!”

“Ahhh!”

“Waugh!”

The Pearls opened their eyes. They were all clutching each other’s shoulders. Bluish was the first to laugh. Fluffs squeezed her eyelids shut and let her tears mix with the acid rain.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fluffs has been on-edge for too long. She finally gets a break.

Fluffs blinked the ammonia from her eyes. Her form had become visibly relaxed, but she kept her leg and arm muscles tense to prevent herself from jerking every time lightning struck. That would be an embarrassing action. Every clash of thunder squeezed her chest. After a while, it became more awesome than terrifying, though.

The Pearls huddled together, wet shoulders touching wet shoulders. Fluffs could feel her hair become heavy with all the ammonia trapped between its fibers. Cream Pearl had produced a flexible beige object from her navel gem that was now capturing Fluffs’s attention. It was shaped as a hollow hemisphere with the edges of said hemisphere spreading out in every direction for about the length of a Ruby’s arm. It was made out of laced fibers. Fluffs stared at it, wondering just what exactly it was, but she didn’t want to ask Cream Pearl directly. She was more comfortable talking to Bluish Pearl. Fluffs leaned in her direction.

“Bluish, what is that thing Cream Pearl has?” she whispered, hoping that Cream Pearl wouldn’t hear her. The incessant tapping of rain covered up her voice from the yellowish gem.

“Ask her,” Bluish urged. Fluffs sighed and let her feet slide over the slightly sloped flat rock they were sitting upon. She felt the rain hit the top of her head. 

“Blu-Cream Pearl? What’s that?” She pointed to Cream Pearl’s head accessory.

“It’s polypropylene,” Cream smiled. She tipped her object downwards, liquid flowing down its weaved fibers and curling around her fingers. “See? The ammonia’s bouncing off of it like no big deal.”

“I wish that I were polypropylene. Then, maybe, I wouldn’t be so worn down all the time,” Fluffs muttered. Cream exhaled through her nose with quiet amusement. Bluish frowned.

“I don’t get it,” she said. Lightning flashed and thunder clapped. The Pearls all jerked in unison. So much for staying visibly relaxed.

“P-polypropylene is a d-durable material,” Fluffs explained. 

“O-oh,” Bluish raised her eyebrows, signaling that she understood. The Pearls waited for their hair to settle down. Then Bluish began to talk to Cream. 

Fluffs remembered an Orpiment visiting Bouazzerite telling her that fact about polypropylene. The Orpiment had come from Homeworld. She had a Pearl, too. Her Pearl looked just as scared as Fluffs felt so often. Fluffs wondered how that Pearl was faring with her newfound freedom. Then again, it was three hundred years ago. Maybe she had even been replaced by then.

That Pearl was bald, just like her owner. Fluffs has never seen a bald Pearl before or since. She was also a burnished-yellow color. Kind of orange, like the Scalenohedron sitting proudly across the bay. The color reminded her of a Schuetteite she had met decades ago. Fluffs jerked again, but not because of any thunder.

“Oh!” she cried aloud. The Pearls looked at Fluffs, who, despite intentionally drawing attention to herself, was trying not to flinch away from their gaze. They weren’t going to scream at her. They weren’t.

_Ahh, _she groaned internally._ Why am I so sensitive?_

“Um,” Fluffs started. “I just came up with something that we could do, after we are done looking at the sea. There is a Schuetteite I am acquainted with—”_ maybe that’s too strong a word; it sounds like I am of equal rank with her,_ “—who I just know, really, who is in the same Facet but more inland… we could visit her and her dominion.” She offered and smiled politely again. Her servile Pearl smile._ Ugh! I sound so timid. They must think I am weak. _She recalled her slip-up in referring to her and Schuetteite’s relationship as them being “acquaintances”. _A brazen weakling, too._

“Yeah, we could go,” Cream Pearl said, nodding her head slightly. _Does she disapprove? She said the word “could” instead of something like “can” or “should”. Does that mean that she does not want to go? Is she mocking my offer? Will she suggest something superior? _Fluffs concluded that she had failed this social interaction and felt the pertinent sadness accordingly. Fortunately, Fluffs was aware of the external signs of her emotional reaction, and neutralized her facial expressions almost immediately.

Cream stood up.

“Well, I have seen the rain,” she said. “Let’s see this ‘acquaintance’ of yours.” Fluffs drew her legs towards her chest in embarrassment. She forced herself to make eye contact with Cream in an effort to better understand her. It was like looking directly at a light source in its difficulty. Cream was smiling, though. Fluffs could not determine whether it was a smile which conveyed social superiority or a smile forgiving her mild faux pas. Fluffs looked away and got to her feet, with Bluish rising up next to her.

_I should have looked at the skin around Cream’s eyes, _Fluffs realized.

“How do we– do you know the warp?” Bluish asked as they began to trek back to the warp pad through the pelting of precipitation.

“Mm-hm. Yeah.”_ Excessive affirmations, _she heard Bouazzerite hiss in her head. Fluffs sighed tiredly. Each pelt of ammonia hitting her head reminded her of Bouazzerite’s tendency to throw small objects at her slave. Every collision brought with it a memory, and a small spike of fear. She was so fatigued.

She must have not neutralized her facial expressions effectively, because Bluish stalled by her side and asked if Fluffs was okay.

Fluffs juggled the ideas of lying through self-deprivation or asking for help. Bluish had helped her before, so logically, she would be willing to help her again. Fluffs made her decision.

“I just feel as though I keep doing things wrong,” Fluffs muttered. For a second, the possibility that admitting such a thing would make Bluish lose respect for her seized her chest. She realized that her limbs were shaking.

Bluish scrunched her face and tilted her head to the side. “You’re not doing anything wrong,” she said. Fluffs blinked. Whether her eyelids were conveying disbelief or were trying to keep ammonia from her eyes eluded her.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Cream added. “I’m having fun.” Fluffs let out a sigh of relief.

“Oh! Sorry, sometimes I get balled-up in my head…” she was smiling. They still liked her! They weren’t thinking of hurting her! Oh, what reassurance!

Oh, wait. She had misassesed the situation. She had overreacted.

_ **As usual.** _

“I’m so silly,” she sighed, making noises that were somewhere between a sob and a laugh. “I’m sorry, I’m so silly!” She brought her gloved hand up to her face and touched the sides of her nose. 

“Oh, Fluffs!” Bluish cried. “You get yourself so worked up!” Fluffs lowered her hand. Bluish was making a concerned face.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be expressing such intense emotions,” Fluffs apologized and laughed again.

“It’s fine,” Bluish said. Fluffs felt tears slide down her cheeks. She became even more embarrassed.

“Sorry,” she whispered and looked at the warp pad.

“It’s fine,” Bluish said again. Fluffs could feel her friend’s breath on her forehead. Fluffs considered apologizing again, but she decided not to. She had probably already pressed her luck with these Pearls with her inappropriate display of emotion. But Bluish had said she was “fine”. She was “fine”.

_Stars! I’m so weak! How often have I cried these past couple of days? It’s as though all my emotions are pouring out at once. Am I defective?_

Fluffs activated the warp. As her feet left the ground and they entered warp space, Fluffs saw Bluish tighten her jaw. Now it was Fluffs’s turn to ask what was wrong.

“Excuse me, Bluish, are you alright?”

“Oh! It’s just - you’ve been so sad lately, and I feel bad,” Bluish frowned frustratedly.

“Don’t feel bad!” Fluffs cried. She dug her fingernails into her own palm as punishment.

“What? Fluffs, I want you to be happy! It hurts me to see you so distraught!”

“I want you to be happy, too!” Fluffs said earnestly. She clawed at her cheeks out of panic. Then she smiled fakely. “And, it’s my fault that I’m distraught!”

Fluffs laughed bitterly and squeezed her eyes shut. “This is so silly! This is so stupid!”

Bluish floated forward and wrapped her arms around Fluffs’s shivering body.

She felt the slight pressure of Bluish placing her hands on her shoulders. She felt the edges of her form give way, Bluish’s hands descending further into her form before the line between her body and Fluffs’s body disappeared completely. There was something moving, and something shifting. Flowing light solidified into limbs, and a new consciousness parted the curtains and stepped forward onto the stage.

Only two masses landed on the warp pad near Schuitterite’s ruins: a confused-looking Pearl, and a large, calm presence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cream Pearl is not mean-spirited. She and Bluish are used to a teasing sort of friendship. She assumed that Fluffs would also be okay with such jokes, but Fluffs is prone to taking things very literally, so it doesn’t always work.
> 
> I hope that you are enjoying the story so far! If you have any feedback, be it positive or constructive, I am always happy to hear it.


	20. No Text, Just Big Ol’ Pearl and Cream Pearl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Big Ol’ Pearl is the fusion of Fluffs and Bluish. Cream Pearl is the figure to the left.


	21. Art of Bouazzerite and Schuetteite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Art of my characters Bouazzerite (with Fluffs pre-manumission) and Schuettiete. The designs for these characters were based off of art by the French designer Erté. I scanned these images instead of photographing them for better quality.
> 
> It turns out that going to college takes much more work than I anticipated, but thanks for your patience nonetheless.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. Have a good day. :-)


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